Corona
by Yugisrose
Summary: Yugi and co. are in greater danger than before. Bakura uses a mysterious artifact to plunge Domino into darkness. However, when Yugi somehow absorbs this power, will Kaiba target Bakura or Yugi for revenge? How can Yami help, separated from Yugi? NO YAOI
1. Chapter 1

Okay, so here's another story…anyone else who might know me here might ask, "What are you doing now? You have other fics to be working on!" But I couldn't pass this up and I thought that it was time for another one. Don't worry though. I'll still work on my other ones!

There are a few things I need to clarify about this story before any of you read it.

This is NOT a romance fic. That means: no shipping, NO yaoi!!! I am not that kind of writer.

I am aware that certain millennium items have certain powers that the other ones don't have; so if I don't get their powers exactly right, don't yell at me. (plz? TT) It's just how this fic works. Okay? ()

Also if anyone has anything to complain about this fic in the way the characters are please tell me. I don't want anyone to seem out of character. (Kaiba might be the only problem…some people make him too nice or too mean…I want him to be nicer but not TOO nice….)

I might have Yami be called: Yami, Pharaoh or Atem, depending on who says it. If anyone has a favorite, let me know! (I usually call him Yami though…)

I know I'm using the English names for everyone, but for Bakura, that's different. For Yami Bakura, I'm going to just call him Bakura. And as for the original, I'll call him Ryou. I don't think anyone will complain. It is easier to type anyway. 

Well, I think that's it for now, so on to the story!!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! 

Ratings may change.

"Corona."

Chapter 1.

"How can they duel now?" Kaiba asked himself. "I would think that at least they would stop _now_…at _school_…"

It was a fine spring day at Domino High but the occupants of the school were forced to stay indoors. It was study period, and everyone was supposed to be working on homework or studying. However, everyone was too restless in the stuffy room to care too much about schoolwork. The students resigned to sleeping, talking with friends, or listening to music. The teacher desperately tried to keep her students in check, but she too was affected with the weather and kept to her desk, reading a book after ten minutes of trying to wake up several kids to no avail. Kaiba taking to her example and was reading a book, until a commotion from in front of him drew his attention. Yugi and Joey were both dueling normally, with Tea and Tristan just sitting there, watching. Supposedly Joey had a pretty good strategy going on until Yugi stopped it at the last minute. Kaiba just rolled his eyes and returned to his book.

"Man, how does that always happen?" Joey looked at Yugi. "You always stop my best strategies!"

"Just lucky I guess," Yugi looked down at the cards then looked next to him. Yami was standing next to him, only in his eyes. The pharaoh was looking out of the window a lot today, and Yugi wondered what was on his mind. But with school and his friends, he wasn't able to ask Yami anything without drawing attention to himself. So, he thought that he would wait until after school. Yugi then noticed that Joey was giving him an odd look so he went back to his cards. "I'll attack your Flame Swordsman and you lose 500 life points."

"It's not luck it's skill," Tea said as Joey put his favorite monster in the graveyard.

"Yeah, and anyway," Tristen looked at Joey with a grin on his face. "You don't have enough skill to fill a teaspoon, so-"

"If you value yourself, don't finish that sentence," Joey raised a fist at Tristen.

Tristan was about to retort back, when a large quake made the whole school shake. It went away after a few seconds. Many students stopped talking to look around. Kaiba looked up from his book, disturbed yet again at the climax. All was silent for a few seconds, until the quake came back again. This time it didn't stop. The students that the teacher failed to awaken are all now standing up fully alert. People started to run out of the room as the fire alarm went off. It was all chaos. Books were coming off of shelves; pieces of the ceiling were falling down.

"Let's get out of here!" Tea yelled over the quake.

"Look!" Yami yelled as he just took over for Yugi. He was pointing out the window as everyone looked. There was a giant green light heading quickly towards them. Yami noticed that destruction met anything that the green light touched. The buildings started to crumble and the sky was turning a dark green color. They all ran outside to get a better look, with Kaiba right behind them.

"Of course this happens on a nice day like today," he thought to himself.

There were people running away from the giant mass of green light. The quake finally stopped when they reached the street, but people were running all over the place, away from the spot they were standing. The green light was only a half a mile away and it was coming fast.

"Guys…I think we should run," Tristen said taking a step back.

"We won't be able to outrun it Tristen!" Joey yelled. He was quite right.

"What will happen when it hits us?" Tea asked fearfully. She looked at each of them in turn, including Kaiba who was just staring at the giant mass of green light like it was a football game.

"We're about to find out," Yami said slightly unnerved.

The green light passed by them with the force of a stampeding bull. They were all forced backwards and they all landed some ten feet away from where they were standing.

"Aaah!" They all yelled but no one yelled as loud as Yami who yelled more in surprise than anything. They all looked at him and received a good shock.

Both Yami and Yugi were visible and both were looking at each other as though they couldn't believe their eyes. To add to their confusion, they both had a millennium puzzle around their necks.

"What in the…" Joey said as they all got up. The fact that both Yugi and Yami were separated was more disturbing than the fact that they just got blown back by a giant green light.

Yugi and Yami tried to speak at the same time.

"What-"

"How did you-"

"I didn't-"

"Then why-"

"And we both-"

"I know!"

They both fell silent suddenly. Tea had to break the silence.

"What happened?" She looked from one to the other.

"We're not sure Tea," Yami looked at her. "But it must have been that green light because that's when we separated."

"Well, that's odd," Kaiba said which alerted everyone to his presence. They all looked at him, but he wasn't looking at Yugi or Yami. He was looking at their surroundings. They all looked too.

What used to be the great city of Domino now looked to be one thousand years older than it really was. All of the buildings were rusty, and covered in grime. Some were falling apart and some already fell to the ground in the short time they stood there. It looked like the slightest wind could knock over the taller ones.

However, the most disturbing thing wasn't because that the buildings were collapsing or that the sky had turned to a dark green making everything seem darker than usual. The most disturbing thing was the people. There weren't as many as there was before the light passed them, but they were there…

As zombies.

They all stepped back in horror and Tea had to use all her willpower not to scream. The zombies were coming out of houses, buildings, and alleyways. One or two even came out of cars. They all looked dead and decaying. Some walked with a slight limp and others walked fine. All the zombies looked at them, and they all stared for a second. Then the zombies all charged at once.

"Can we run now?" Tristan yelled but he didn't wait for an answer. He automatically ran in the opposite direction. Everyone followed.

"What do they want with us?" Yugi looked back at the zombies chasing them.

"Meat?" Joey said but regretted it at once when a image of a zombie eating him came into his head. "Ugh.."

"Where did they come from?" Tea said as they ran past out of the school grounds which now resembled a dump.

"They might be…everyone…" Yami said looking back as well. The zombies were starting to pull back. But they kept on running.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that…. that green light might have turned everyone who lives in Domino into zombies, except us for some reason." Yami looked down.

"Wait a minute…" Kaiba stopped in his tracks. Everyone stopped to look at him. "Mokuba…" And with that he sprinted as hard as he could toward his mansion.

"Kaiba wait!" Yugi yelled and he ran after him. Yami followed.

"What the…" Tristen looked after them. "What was that about?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Tea looked at Joey and Tristen. When they still looked blankly back, she sighed and said, "Mokuba! What if he's a zombie?"

"Oh…" they both said with dawning comprehension. Joey and Tristan were interrupted from their thoughts when the zombies began to advance on them.

"Eeeek!" Tea squealed. "Quick! Which way did Kaiba go?"

"Uh…." Joey looked around. He had completely forgotten which way they took and he had no idea how to get to Kaiba's mansion. "Let's go this way!" He ran off in a random direction.

"Joey!" Tea yelled after him but Tristen pulled her in a different direction. "Tristen! What are you doing? Joey went that way!"

"I know but we have to lose these things." Tristen led Tea back towards Domino Park.

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"No!! This can't be happening!" Kaiba looked at his mansion in disgust. The once beautiful multimillion-dollar mansion was a complete wreak. Grime was on every available surface, spider webs occupied the windows and he was sure he saw something moving inside the house that didn't look too alive.

"Don't worry Kaiba," Yugi spoke as he and Yami caught up to Kaiba. "It…could be worse…"

"Worse?" Kaiba rounded on him. "How could it be worse?"

"Like that…"Yami pointed to the house. Kaiba and Yugi looked to where he was pointing. There, in front of the house was Mokuba…as a zombie.

"No…Mokuba," Kaiba stepped foreword. Mokuba did nothing but stare at Kaiba vacantly.

"Don't go near him Kaiba," Yami said. "What if he attacks you?"

"You know he has a point."

They all looked around. That voice sounded awfully familiar…

All of a sudden, Bakura jumps out of a bush and stands next to Mokuba, who does nothing.

"Hello Pharaoh," he said with a grin. "Do you like what I've done with the place?"

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Well that's it for chapter 1!! I hope you all enjoyed it. I hope you didn't mind that I didn't explain what the zombies look like more. I didn't really want to change the rating but if it doesn't bother anyone, I'll explain them better later on.

Until next time!

Yugisrose


	2. Chapter 2

Well, here's the second chapter! I looked back on the first one and some things, I realized I didn't explain as well, as I would have liked…I hope I clear things up soon. If anyone has questions, feel free to ask me!

"Corona."

Chapter 2.

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"Hello Pharaoh," he said with a grin. "Do you like what I've done with the place?"

"Bakura!" Yami yelled at their old enemy as Yugi gasped. "So you're behind all of this?"

"Of course I am. What would you expect, a polar bear?" Bakura laughed a full 1.3 seconds before continuing. "No, I did all this with the help of a useful item…"

He held up what looked like a crown, only it seemed to be made out of some sort of stone. It looked incredibly old and it was chipped in various places. The only thing that made it look like it was worth anything was that it was glowing with an eerie green light.

"What is that, and where did you get it?" Yami demanded. He now knew where that green light that covered the city came from.

"This, Pharaoh, is a crown that has given me complete rule over this town." Bakura twirled the ancient-looking object around his finger, grinning at the trio. "I'm not going to tell you where I got if of course."

"Why would you want to rule just this town?" Yugi asked him, repulsed.

"I'm not. I'm going to use this power to rule the world! But you see…there's just one problem. I need all of the millennium items to make it work." Bakura patted the zombie-Mokuba on the head.

Yugi and Yami looked at each other and then back at Bakura.

"If you think you're going to get the Millennium Puzzle-" Yugi began but he was cut off by Kaiba, who until now hasn't said a work or done anything but stare at Mokuba.

"Get you're filthy hands off of by little brother!" Kaiba screamed and he dashed at Bakura, intent on pulverizing every spot of him that he could reach, oblivious to Yami and Yugi calling his name…

Just before he could reach Bakura, the crown began to glow, and in an instant, used it, and Bakura's energy to blast Kaiba, Yugi, and Yami away…far away. Bakura thought that it was a good idea to separate them all for a while…to get his prize.

"Now to get the Millennium Puzzle, I need to get both Little Yugi's and the Pharaoh's." Bakura looked at the crown that still glowed that green light. "That shouldn't be too hard."

He gripped Mokuba by the shoulder and led him off towards his hideout. The smaller Kaiba would stay with him for now…until he got what he wanted.

"Oh, yes, this will be easy. I've already got three Millennium items and the crown!"

Bakura laughed. He would have the world crumbling by nightfall.

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Téa usually liked walking in Domino Park with friends, just to have some peace and quiet or to have some fun. But as she walked with Tristan towards the playground area, this walk could hardly be called, "fun." Everything seemed to be dead: the trees, the grass, and even the playground was old and rusty. There seemed to be no one in sight.

"I don't think Joey ran this way…" Tristan said to bring Téa out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, let's get out of here." Téa turned around, not eager to walk through the park. But as soon as she turned around, she saw them:

One hundred, or possibly more, zombies were standing behind them. And these zombies weren't just regular zombies…they were children. Drooling, scabbed and rotting the children zombies began to limp over to where they were standing, muttering things under their breaths. Tea couldn't hold it in anymore.

She screamed.

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Yami woke up suddenly as if someone aroused him. He got up and looked at his surroundings. He seemed to be in the middle of the woods. He knew of only one forest around Domino, and it wasn't very large. It was right on the outskirts of town. He looked at all of the trees and they seemed to be hundred of years old, with vines and bushes growing all around them. He suddenly noticed that he wasn't alone. Kaiba was laying about twenty feet from where he stood, and he was just getting up as well.

"Kaiba," Yami ran over to where he was and helped him up. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I got it." Kaiba got up and looked around. "Great…just where I always wanted to end up."

Yami just noticed with a gasp, who was missing.

"Yugi?" he called out to the unusually quiet forest, but nothing called back. "Oh, no…"

"Okay, I don't know what's going on here, but I'm going to kick that guy's…"Kaiba cut himself off when he saw a building out in the distance. Yami saw it as well, and they both stared at it.

The building was completely white, and very large. What puzzled them most was, not that it was stationed in the middle of the woods, but that it looked completely new. Every building that they saw so far that touched the crown's green light looked demolished or ready to fall over at the slightest touch. However, this building looked completely untouched by Bakura's wrath. They both ran to it and it looked larger up close. It might have compared in height to Kaiba Corp.

"What in the world is this place?" Kaiba said as he looked up at the magnificent building. It seemed to be made out of marble.

Yami gasped suddenly and said loud and clearly, "This is Bakura's headquarters!"

"How do you know that?"

"Well, the sign makes it pretty obvious." Kaiba looked to where Yami was at, some ten feet away. Indeed, there was a giant sign that read: Bakura: "Evil Genius, King of Thieves. HQ." There were blinking lights all around the edges of the signs.

"…Uh…" was all Kaiba could say. Was Bakura this stupid? To make it plainly obvious that this was his hideout? No, he thought. He must want us to know what it is…

"Should we go in?" Yami asked him.

"Lead the way."

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Well, that ends Chapter 2. I was going to make it either much shorter or longer, but I decided to end it here. Oh, and for anyone who wants to know, or is interested, "Corona" is Latin for "Crown." … Just so you know.

I hope someone's reading this, so Read and Review!

If anyone has any improvements that they want me to do, please let me know! Thanks!

Yugisrose


	3. Chapter 3

Hi everyone! I really hate taking forever to update chapters but I'm trying to do better. Thank you to all who reviewed! On with the next chapter!

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"Corona."

Chapter 3

Yami led the way into Bakura's headquarters, with Kaiba right behind him. It was an extremely long pathway with all kinds of weeds growing along side it, giving the new-looking building an odd look. There were shrubs that were cut like duel monsters all along the side of the path. Kaiba thought that it wasn't a bad idea…but Kaiba was cut from his thoughts when Yami stopped in front of the door.

"What is it?" Kaiba asked.

"Look," Yami pointed to the door. When Kaiba looked he only just then realized that the door was left halfway open. "This whole building could be a trap."

"Trap or not, I need to find Mokuba." He walked past Yami and opened the door all the way.

What they saw inside was surprising and yet…not surprising at the same time. It was a long, completely white hallway with several doors leading elsewhere in the building. There must have been ten different doors, and all of them, like the walls, ceiling and floors around it, where bright white.

"Not my choice of décor…" Kaiba trailed off. He suddenly felt, somehow, that something in the building was calling him. However, he found he could just ignore it.

"Well, I guess we should split up then?" Yami walked up next to him noticing that the building didn't seem to be a trap.

"Wait, what are you going to be looking for?" Kaiba asked before Yami could go further.

"I need to find that crown." He said without turning to look at him. "Without it, Bakura will be next to powerless." Kaiba chuckled.

"Great. Now why did I have to get stuck with Mr. Magic is real?"

"Well, look at the bright side," Yami said to humor Kaiba. "You could be stuck with Joey."

Kaiba rolled his eyes at the joke and went up to the first door on the right. Yami went to the first one on the left.

When Yami opened his door, he received an unpleasant surprise: another white hallway. It seemed that every room in the building was made to look exactly the same as to confuse enemies. What was worse was that there were another ten doors in _this_ hallway.

"I guess I'm going to have to try them all," Yami sighed. He went up to another door and opened it. Another white hallway, exactly the same as the previous two, stood in front of him. "How large is this place anyway?

However, something felt different about this room. There was one door at the far end of the hallway, whose paint seemed dimmer than the rest of them. Curious for something different, Yami went over to that specific door and opened it.

"What the…."

The room was completely black. Due to the fact that his eyes were adjusted to the white walls outside of this room, he couldn't see past where the light hit. He entered cautiously, and regretted it immediately. The floor, which was once so solid, melted upon his touch, and he fell through the dark abyss…

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Kaiba was walking in a hallway exactly similar to the one Yami was previously in. All the walls were blindingly white. He however, was not going through any door at random. Kaiba could still feel some sort of force pulling him, telling him where to go. He was not sure what this was but he did not reject it, feeling he had nothing else to lose…

Long, tedious, and frustrating: that would be the words to describe this building. But Kaiba was not marred by the fact that there were so many doors because he kept half of his thoughts on his brother. First door to the left…. third door to the left…. fifth door to the right…on and on the doors led him to hallways that looked like the one he had previously occupied. But the force that was pulling him was growing stronger with every door he passed through, and he knew he was almost there.

Finally he reached the door that he somehow knew was the last one. He opened it and found a room that was also white, but something in the corner was not and they drew his eye.

The Millennium Eye and the Millennium Rod were both lying in the corner of the room…. unoccupied. He walked up to them and picked up the Millennium Rod. So this was the thing that was calling him…Kaiba knew that as soon as he picked it up. It felt light in his hands and radiated a sort of power.

Kaiba smirked. How dumb can Bakura be, leaving his most treasured possessions just laying around, thinking no one could get it? He didn't even have any alarms laying around.

Then, another color, green, attracted his eye. He looked to the right and saw, to his surprise, that Bakura's crown was sitting in the other corner. Still holding the Rod, he walked over to the crown and picked it up. It too was pulsing with energy…but for some reason it felt dark…and evil…

But just as Kaiba decided that he was going to leave, a door opened to his left that he didn't even realize was there before. Bakura walked out of it with a smirk on his face, and Kaiba jumped back.

"You!" Kaiba growled.

"Well, well, Kaiba, I'm surprised you got this far. However," Bakura snapped his fingers and a large portion of the floor opened up in the middle of the room. "If you don't want to end up like him, then you probably _should_ cooperate."

Kaiba looked and gasped. A giant glass ball had emerged from the opening in the floor, and inside it, was Yami.

Yami stood inside the ball looking quite helpless as he glared at Bakura.

Kaiba took a step back and yelled at Bakura, "I'll never do what you say!" He gave Yami one last look to tell him that he, Kaiba, would be back for him, before he ran out of the room with the Rod and Crown in tow. He ran through the way he came and he was glad he left all the doors he went through, open. He was surprised to see Bakura not chasing him, but ran nonetheless. Even when he got out of the annoyingly bright building and into the forest, he ran. He didn't stop running until he reached the other side of the forest.

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Bakura smirked back in the building. It did not matter if he lost the Crown and the Rod…he would get them back eventually. He looked at the Pharaoh.

"Now just sit back and watch," Bakura said as he picked up the Millennium Eye and held up his Millennium Ring. "I'm going to destroy your friends one by one. Then it won't be long until all the Millennium Items are mine!"

"No…" Yami yelled but since his voice was muffled by the sound-proof glass, Bakura could easily ignore him.

Suddenly both the Eye and the Ring glowed a bright yellow light, making the room somehow, brighter than usual. Combining their powers, he directed his thoughts on one person: Kaiba.

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Kaiba felt the change immediately. At first he didn't realize what was wrong. Everything looked the same, but there was something wrong…

And then it was then he realized that he couldn't move any part of his body. All he could do was stand there, frozen. Then, suddenly, Bakura's voice echoed in his head as if there was a small microphone next to his ear and he was using it to communicate.

"Now Kaiba, you must do exactly as I say." Kaiba would have jumped if he could move. "You must find Little Yugi. I need his half of the Millennium Puzzle. Now go, find him! And bring me what is rightfully mine!"

Kaiba found himself speaking although he didn't think of any words to say, "As you wish…"

What was going on?

But before he could digest the fact that Bakura was controlling him, he found himself walking out of the forest, unable to control his actions. As much as he tried he could not break free. All he could do was watch as Bakura made him do his dirty work.

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"Hello? Anybody out there?" Yugi called out to the emptiness. He got no answer, but it's not like he expected one anyway. He had been trying for an hour to find anyone…or any thing that was alive, but only found people who were not.

The way the city was right now was really freaking him out. The sky was not supposed to be green, the buildings in wreckage, or the people acting like zombies. Twice in the past hour he walked upon crowds of zombies, who were intent on nothing but to eat him. But that wasn't his main concern at the moment. The only thing he wanted to do right now was finding his friends to make sure they were all ok. He was not sure what happened to Kaiba and Yami and he couldn't help but feel as if something bad happened to them…

Just as Yugi thought this, a shadow appeared from the corner of the tattered building next to him. He backed up a little bit, thinking of zombies, but once a little green light was shown on the subject, Yugi realized that it was Kaiba.

"Kaiba!" Yugi sighed with relief. "I'm so glad to see a familiar face."

"Yes Yugi," Kaiba said as he walked up. "So am I."

"Have you seen anyone else? I was getting worried."

"No…I have not."

"…Okay…" Yugi was starting to get freaked out again. Kaiba was acting very strangely…then he noticed what Kaiba was holding. "Hey! Where did you get the Millennium Rod?"

"Oh…I found it…" Kaiba said oddly. He was giving a Yugi a look that creeped him out.

"And where did you get that?!" Yugi exclaimed pointing to the Crown.

"I took them from Bakura." Kaiba laughed. But it was not Kaiba's laugh. This laugh was cold and just plain creepy…and yet oddly familiar.

"Okay then…maybe I should just take this then…just to be sure…" Yugi said slowly grabbing for the Crown.

He closed his fingers around it and started to pull it from Kaiba's grip. But then Kaiba tightened his grasp on the Crown as well and pulled back. However, Yugi didn't let go as easily.

"No, it's okay…I got it." Kaiba said with glazed eyes.

"No, I really think I should take this from you," Yugi pulled back on the Crown but Kaiba did not let go and he pulled back.

"I can handle it!"

"No, you can't!" Yugi pulled back.

"I'll trade you for your Puzzle then!"

This suggestion almost made Yugi loosen his grip on the crown, but he held on nonetheless. "What? Never!"

"Then I got it!" Kaiba pulled back on the Crown.

"Kaiba, you're not in your right mind! I think the crown is to blame, so give it!" Yugi pulled.

"No!" Kaiba pulled.

They both pulled at the same time as hard as they could, determined to get the crown from the other. However, as they did this many things happened at once: The Crown itself, seemed it could not sustain so much force at once and it began to glow green. It released a lot of green energy as if it was trying to ward off them both. Bakura, not knowing what was coming, slipped his control over Kaiba, and then Kaiba was able to get control over his body again. As soon as he knew what he was doing, he let go of the Crown, sending him and Yugi flying backwards. The sudden release must have changed something in the Crown because, after that it glowed brighter than ever in Yugi's hands and he dropped it on his chest. Then, in one sudden movement, the Crown seemingly vanished into thin air and the glowing was gone.

Both Yugi and Kaiba sat on the ground for a minute, trying to take in what just happened. But it was all very confusing. Kaiba, deciding that they weren't going to accomplish anything by staying here stood up, walked over to Yugi, and helped him up.

"You okay?" Kaiba asked. Yugi didn't answer immediately. He was looking at Kaiba with a mixture of fear and surprise. But then he softened up when he realized that this was the real Kaiba talking.

"Yeah. You?"

They both stood in silence for a moment longer before Kaiba had to break it.

"I'm sorry."

Yugi looked up at him in surprise. Never could he remember that Kaiba said he was sorry to anyone…

"For what?" he asked.

"Bakura was controlling me somehow. I hope he didn't make me hurt you…"

"Are you sure you're still not?" Yugi said with slight humor. "First you say you're sorry and then you almost admit that magic is real."

"Hey, don't ruin the moment."

"Right…sorry…. but you're okay, right?"

"Yeah…"

They stood for another moment…or perhaps longer, before Kaiba had to break it somehow yet again.

"Wait…what happened to the Crown?"

Yugi looked up at him in surprise and said, "I don't know. It kind of disappeared."

"What do you mean?" he looked at Yugi angrily. "Things don't just disappear out of thin air Yugi."

"…Yeah, you're right…" Yugi looked at the ground. Kaiba thought there wasn't something right about that Crown disappearing like that, but didn't say anything more on the subject. If it was gone, then it was good for them. Before Kaiba could say anything different however, Yugi spoke up again. "So have you seen anyone else?"

At this, Kaiba hesitated. He hated to be the bearer of bad news, but now he had no choice but to tell him. So Kaiba used up the next five minutes telling Yugi what he and Yami were up to, and how Bakura captured Yami. Yugi's reaction was just as he expected, and he was ready for it.

"This…can't be!" Yugi looked at Kaiba in the eyes to see if he was lying, but nothing told him that he was. "We have to go save him!"

"Yugi, don't you think that's what Bakura will be expecting?" Kaiba said as if a parent to a bad child. "He's already hunting you down for your Puzzle and you want to just walk right to him?"

"Well, we have to do something!"

"Yugi, you can't go into these things without a plan first." Kaiba looked at a crumbling building for something else to look at other than Yugi. "Because, that's what got him captured in the first place."

Yugi put his head down and did not argue. He knew Kaiba was right.

Suddenly, a loud scream broke them out of their thoughts. It seemed to be coming from where Domino Park used to stand, clean and unscathed.

"That sounded….like Téa!"

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Bakura saw it all, and he felt it all.

He now was pacing back and forth on the white floor next to where he was keeping Yami captive.

"This is odd…" he mumbled to himself. "The Crown isn't supposed to act that way…well, not according to the ancient text…"

Bakura pounded his fist on the white wall. He was angry not just because his plan didn't go as…planned, but his headquarters was supposed to confuse intruders to get them lost in his white labyrinth. That was why he kept his front door unlocked and why he had a sign out front. But Kaiba somehow was able to get in, take the Crown and the Rod, and get out. He looked at Yami who was glaring at him with a mixture of pure loathing and confusion. Bakura smirked.

"Oh, don't look at me like that Pharaoh, you know it will do you as good as trying to use your Millennium Puzzle while in that bubble!"

Yami said nothing, but continued to glare at him.

"Oh well," Bakura shrugged and pulled out the Millennium Eye. "What was to be my downfall can now be turned into my advantage!"

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Phew! Ten pages! It's one of my longer chapters. (I know some people like to do 20-30 pages, but I'm not going to do that.) I hoped you all liked it, so please Read and Review!

Yugisrose


	4. Chapter 4

Hi everyone! Sorry that this took forever!

"Corona"

Chapter 4

* * *

Kaiba and Yugi ran as fast as they could towards Domino Park…or what they thought was the direction towards the park. With everything looking so different than it was that morning, it was a little difficult to navigate through the city. However, Téa's screams kept them going in the right direction.

"Téa?" Yugi yelled out as he and Kaiba ran in the direction of her voice. "Where are you?"

"Look!" Kaiba pointed to their left. In the center of the park, in the children's playground area, was a large group of children that were crowded around the monkey bars. However, with closer inspection, those children didn't seem quite so normal. All of them were nothing but rotting corpses, walking around with their own intent in mind. All of their skin was brown an crusty. Some of their eyes were bulging and some had no eyes at all. Most of the children's hair was knotted and/or ripped out. This kind of scene was not something you wanted to walk in on.

"What is going on?" Yugi took a step back at the sight. He and Kaiba almost jumped a foot in the air when they heard Téa scream again. This time, they were able to find out where it was coming from.

High atop the monkey bars, hanging for their lives, were none other than Téa and Tristan.

"Guys!" Yugi's immediate reaction was to run up and help them, which is what he ran up to do.

"Yugi, wait!" Kaiba yelled out to stop him. "You're acting irrationally again! We need a plan first!"

It was too late however as Téa cried out, "Yugi! Kaiba!" All of the zombie children looked in their direction.

"Oh boy…" Kaiba literally face palmed.

Yugi stopped in his tracks as all of the zombie children looked in his direction. They all stared at him for a few seconds, as if trying to decide if he was edible or not. Then, without warning, they started to run after him. Yugi, frightened that a mass of zombies were running towards him to possibly eat him, ran in the opposite direction. That's when he had an idea…

"Kaiba! Get Tristan and Téa out of here!" he yelled as he led the zombies away.

However Kaiba was already on it by the time Yugi finished his sentence.

"How in the world did you losers end up like this?" Kaiba asked as he helped Téa down first. Seeing as how Kaiba was rude to them all of the time, they ignored most of his sentence. Sort of….

"Hey, you can't say much better," Tristan scowled.

Once Téa got down from the monkey bars, and Tristan was helping himself down, did she notice how quiet it got.

"Hey, where's Yugi?"

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Yugi ran as fast as he could through the rotting city. It was bad enough that the green sky didn't give much light for navigation, an that the buildings were crumbling on their own accord, but now he had a mob of zombie children chasing him too.

Peachy…

Deciding that he was going nowhere fast, Yugi decided that it was time to loose them. So, he ran into an alleyway to try and lose them. However, he was met with a dead end. Panting, he tried to furiously work his brain into a way to try and escape the dead end, but before he could, he noticed the zombie children at the mouth of the alley. They begun to advance slowly as if they knew that they cornered their prey.

"Get back!" Yugi tried to yell at them to hopefully dissuade them into eating him. But he might as well have yelled at the wall behind him.

_I know what might work! The Millennium Puzzle! _he thought. Hoping that the puzzle would hopefully send them back, he went to use its power…

But he got something else instead.

Several things happened at once: As he swung his hand towards the zombies, a sense of power of destruction came over from his gut so fast he couldn't hold it back. A stream of green energy came from his palm and a giant explosion roared through the air exactly where the zombie children had been standing before. Once he could stop the flow of energy, he yelled as his hand felt like it was on fire and he fell to his knees.

Once the dust cleared, he saw the damage that was done. There was nothing but a large pile of dust sitting in front of him now. Even parts of the buildings that were next to it seemed to crumble away into nothing.

"What in the…" Yugi said as he started to stand up, but realized that, that blast had cost him a good amount of energy. He leaned up against the wall for support. He stood there for a few minutes to try and regain his strength. He looked at his hand. The pain that was agonizing before was reduced to a dull throb. Whatever that power was, wasn't to be taken lightly…

And then he realized it…

"The Crown!" he gasped.

* * *

Yeah, not too long, but I figured I'd check if anyone was still reading this before I went on. If you want this fic to continue, please reveiw!! I personally would like to see it being continued. I do need to redo a lot in it, but I would like to finish it first before I go and do that.

So please, RxR!!

Yugisrose


	5. Chapter 5

Hi all! Here's chapter 5! This chapter might be a little...too much. You'll know what I mean after you finish it.

"Corona"

Chapter 5

* * *

The sky seemed to get steadily darker as Yugi stood in the alleyway contemplating what the crown being inside him meant. If he could use the crown's energy, then that could mean he could stop Bakura from taking over the world. On the other hand, it could come at great cost to him. He looked at his hand which looked normal but was still aching considerably. What happened just now? How did the crown make this happen? However, before he could contemplate the subject further, he heard Téa calling his name.

He stood up intent on getting back to his friends when his eyes caught the pile of dust that once was the zombie children. A thought struck him as he looked at it. What would happen if…no, when, the city gets turned back to normal? Would the children be okay, or would they be…dead? Yugi gulped as he thought about those children dying by his hands but tried to push it to the back of his mind. With one last look at the dust pile, he ran towards his friends voices. He ran around the corner and nearly rammed into Tristan.

"Whoa!" They both stopped and Tristan sighed in relief. "Hey, Yugi, there you are." Téa and Kaiba came up from behind Tristan.

"Oh gosh Yugi," Téa ran up to Yugi and hugged him, causing Yugi to blush. "You had me worried!" Yugi blinked.

"Téa, it's ok. The zombies are gone!" After Téa was finished telling Yugi how reckless his stunt was, Tristan finally found an opening to ask,

"So what happened to the zombies?" he asked. "Did you give them the slip?"

"Oh, yeah," Yugi said, glad for the excuse. "They're gone."

"If you dweebs are done talking, I think we should get a move on!" Kaiba growled. The trio looked at each other, knowing he was right. They lingered for too long.

"Yeah, we should go and find Joey and Yami." Tristan looked toward Yugi and Kaiba. "You guys wouldn't happen to know where they went, do you?"

As they started their search, Kaiba retold his tale of how Bakura trapped Yami inside of his headquarters. As he listened to Téa and Tristan's horror on the subject, Kaiba couldn't help but notice Yugi's depressed expression. He guessed that the kid was feeling a little down about all of this happening. Kaiba chuckled to himself.

If anyone deserved to be guilty, it was him.

"I vote that, once we find Joey, we go and help Yami!" Téa yelled, probably awakening the zombie-infested block in the process. Tristan covered her mouth in an attempt to keep her voice levels down.

Yugi tried to ignore the sudden shuffling noises behind the buildings after she said that. "But where do we start to look for him?" Tristan laughed.

"Where else? Let's check all the local restaurants."

Fifteen minutes later, they found themselves standing in front of Burger World. A few minutes ago, Tristan would have bet all of his clothes that Joey would be there, trying to find himself something to eat. Now however, he was positive that the blond was not. The once proud restaurant was now nothing more than a pile of boulders.

"I hate this." Tristan mumbled, seeing his most favorite burger place reduced to earth.

"Well, why don't we try his house? Joey could be there." Téa suggested.

"Well, lead the way."

Upon arriving at said location, they were surprised that Joey's apartment complex was still standing. It looked exactly the same as they left it minus the fact that it looked 150 years older than what it was. The green tint coming from the sky didn't help with it's decayed look. Tristan was the first to walk up the steps. Once everyone was behind him, minus Kaiba, he knocked on the door.

"Hey, dude!" Tristan tried to speak in a harsh whisper. "Joey, are ya in there bud?"

At first, all they could hear was the distant rumble of the soft wind. Then, as Tristan was about to try again, the door swung open.

There, standing in the doorway, was not Joey, but Joey's father.

Everyone gasped. Joey's father was the town drunk, and nobody wanted to get in his way. However, that fact seemed to triple in size as they beheld the man: he had become a zombie as well.

"Joseph! You're late!" the zombie looked at Tristan and threw a beer bottle at him. It missed by inches and it smashed on the ground by Kaiba's feet.

"Hey!" Kaiba growled.

"Yo, watch it you-" Tristan stopped as he noticed the zombie start to walk towards them with outstretched arms.

"Make me a sandwich!!" it yelled with drool running from its mouth. Téa couldn't take it anymore.

"_Run_!" she yelled. Everyone, including Kaiba bolted away from the ravaging zombie. They didn't stop until they came back to the park, where Kaiba and Yugi found Téa and Tristan earlier. Although they were blocks away, they thought they could still hear Joey's zombie of a father yelling curses at them.

"Well…that…could have gone…better," Tristan panted. After another minute of everyone catching their breath, Téa found her voice.

"No! You think?!" she glared at him.

"Well, where should we look now?" Yugi asked the group. They were running out of ideas faster than you could say chocolate-dipped pickles.

The rest of the conversation was lost to Kaiba, as he heard a familiar voice echo throughout his mind.

"**Do you wish to save your brother?" **The voice spoke in a deadly calm. The calm before the storm.

Kaiba suddenly felt the same sensation that he felt after he escaped from Bakura and ran into Yugi. He felt as though he was merely a spectator as his body acted on its own. The feeling was the same as it was back then: unnerving. Seto Kaiba hated not being in control of a situation, thus he fought to regain his mobility. However the voice, who Kaiba knew belonged to Bakura, was very hard to block out.

"**Tsk, tsk Kaiba," **the voice continued. **"Your poor brother is going to be reduced to a mindless zombie." **

"_Mokuba…"_

"**If you want to save him, and your company Kaiba I suggest you do as I tell you: Take out the millennium Rod!"**

Kaiba suddenly felt his hand reach into his pocket and grab the cool metal surface of the Millennium Rod, with out him even thinking about doing such.

"_What?!"_

"**Now avenge your family name."**

Then the conversation that was taking place suddenly became amplified once more.

"I think we should check out each one of our houses." Téa said. "We might find him there. Who knows, he could be looking for us too."

"I dunno," Tristan said, sounding doubtful. "He could be wandering around the city, just like us. Why would he go to any one of our places?"

"Well, there could be plenty of reason-" Yugi cut himself off. He suddenly got a similar sensation of power, coursing through his chest, where he knew that the crown disappeared into. It seemed to be radiating. The only other time that it did such a thing, was when he accidentally shot all of those zombie children. Now however, it seemed to be radiating on its own.

"Something wrong Yugi?" Téa asked. Yugi saw her face go from confused, to shocked. "Kaiba, what are you doing?!"

Yugi turned around to find Kaiba pointing the Millennium Rod at him.

"You're mine Little Yugi!" Kaiba snickered with glazed eyes. The Millennium Rod glowed and suddenly, Yugi's body became rigid.

"W-what are you doing?!" Yugi struggled to get free from the magical grasped, to no avail.

Somewhere within Kaiba's mind, Bakura frowned. "Blast. I had forgotten about his portion of the Millennium Puzzle. I can't control his mind." The thief thought for a second before smirking. "Oh well. Torture usually isn't the kind of game I play, but in this case, I'll make an exception."

"Kaiba, what do you think you are doing?" Tristan yelled out to him, but it fell to deaf ears.

"You shall pay what you have done to me!" Kaiba's unnaturally deadly voice pierced the air like a hot poker on butter.

"What are you talking about?" Yugi continued to struggle against his invisible bindings. Then, Kaiba smirked.

"You have the crown inside you. So _you_ are responsible for the evil that that artifact has created."

"What?!" Téa and Tristan yelled in unison.

"W-what? But that's not true!" Yugi said in shock. How could Bakura even _try _and blame _him_ for everything?

"Now," Kaiba's voice was starting to sound like Bakura by the minute. "With that on your shoulders, let's see how you feel after destroying all of Domino!"

Before anyone could say a word, the Millennium Rod glowed, if possible, even brighter. Yugi grunted in pain as his hand started to glow with a green aura. With the flick of the Rod, Yugi felt his hand lift up on its own accord.

"No…Wait-Stop!"

A jet of green energy burst from Yugi's open palm. Yugi painfully yelled out as the attack collided with a building. As soon as the attack hit, the building seemed to explode. A loud rippling boom echoed from the weakened building as it collapsed to the ground. Even though the building was a good half a mile away, smoke started to seep its way to the park.

Kaiba started to insanely laugh as he had Yugi do the same thing to a couple more buildings. All the while, Téa was trying to wonder why Kaiba had suddenly cracked.

"Kaiba, please stop it!" Téa said with watery eyes. She was too frightened to go up to Kaiba and physically stop him. He looked insane. "How is this going to help at all?"

"It doesn't," Kaiba turned to her. "I just like to see things explode every once and a while."

"W-what?!"

"Ah, the wonderful smell of decay brings back memories," he continued. "Now you get to-"

Kaiba was cut off as Tristan, unable to hear him go on, charged at him with full speed, intent on beating him to a pulp. Kaiba was too quick however, as he dodged Tristan's punch and used the Rod to knock him back quite a few feet. Tristan landed harshly on the ground and Téa ran up to him.

"Tristan, you okay?" Téa knelt beside him to help him up.

"Yeah," Tristan winced as Téa brought him to his feet. "Man, he packs a punch."

"How dare you!" Kaiba growled at Tristan. "Do you think that hitting the him would do anything?"

"Kaiba," Yugi panted. He was sure that if the Rod's spell wasn't holding him in place, he would have collapsed already. On top of that, his whole arm felt like it was on fire, and there was an irritating pain coming from his chest. Nonetheless, Yugi was determined to stop Bakura's plans. "I know you can hear me in there! Don't let Bakura control you! You're stronger than him!"

"Oh, you think so?" Kaiba mocked. "Well then-" Kaiba was suddenly cut off again, as a fist collided against his face. He stumbled, and as he regained his footing, he looked to see his attacker.

"Joey!" Téa cried out. "You're here!"

Joey quickly grabbed Kaiba's collar and brought him closer. "Nobody hurts my friends!" Kaiba smirked.

"Joey, be careful!" Yugi tiredly called to him. "Kaiba's not in his right mind! Bakura's controlling him!"

Joey looked from Yugi, then glared back at Kaiba. "Alright, whoever you are. _Let…him…go_!"

All Kaiba did to the potential threat was smirk. Feeling that he hadn't got his point across, Joey was about to start with harsher threats, until he raised the Rod up higher.

"Joey, look out!" Yugi yelled as his hand pointed towards Joey and fired the attack in his direction. Joey looked, and dodged just in time. The green energy blast quickly made it to the monkey bars, in the park, and they exploded with a loud bang. Crushed metal poles, littered the area.

"Woah," Joey looked at the disaster. He couldn't imagine what would of happened if that attack had hit him.

"Enough playing around," Kaiba raised the Rod again, forcing Yugi to face both palms towards the decaying city. "I'm going to have you all watch as I destroy all of Domino!"

Joey tensed, ready for a fight. "Oh yeah?"

Kaiba smirked as the Rod glowed. "Yeah."

Suddenly, Yugi screamed as a massive green energy beam erupted from his hands. It was so large, and powerful, that the air itself seemed to crackle with energy. Kaiba laughed maniacally as the blast started destroying building after building.

"No stop!" Téa screamed. "Please stop! You're hurting him!"

Téa's voice seemed to give Joey the courage he needed. As fast as he could, he rammed Kaiba so hard that the Millennium Rod, slipped from his grasp. As soon as the Rod was no longer in Kaiba's hands, Bakura's control over him weakened dramatically, and Kaiba was able to take control of his own body and mind again. After Kaiba landed painfully on the ground he sat up and glared at Joey.

"Jeez Wheeler, what was that for?!"

The fight out of Joey's eyes faded a little as he observed Kaiba. No longer were his eyes glazed full of malice, and he no longer sounded like someone bent on revenge.

"Kaiba? That you?"

Kaiba stood up, dusting off his jacket. "Of course it's me, now why did you knock me-" He stopped as he looked at his surroundings. Hundreds of buildings lay in ruin, and the sky was full of green smoke and ashes. Looking back on the ground he saw Téa and Tristan kneeling over an unresponsive Yugi.

"What happened?"

For the first time that Joey could remember, Kaiba's voice had fear in it. It was as if he already knew the answer.

* * *

Whoohoo! Joey saves the day! Heheh.

So, what did you think? Was that over doing it?

Well let me know via Reply or PM. They're greatly appreciated! :)

And I'll try and do the next chapter as soon as possible! Thanks to the people who replied, favorited and alerted this fic! Keep it up!

Yugisrose


	6. Chapter 6

Hi all! I'm grateful for the feedback in the last chapter! Keep it up! :D

"Corona"

Chapter 6

* * *

"Is he alright?" Joey kneeled next to Téa and Tristan. They said nothing. Yugi's face was completely devoid of color and he was shivering.

"We have to get him somewhere…somewhere safe." Joey said looking around and trying to hide his panic from his voice. "Someplace that isn't destroyed that is…"

"Let's go to my house."

Joey, Téa and Tristan quickly looked at Kaiba who was slowly walking towards them.

"Why should we-" Joey began to argue with him only to stop in mid sentence. The look on Kaiba's face was something he had never seen before. It was a mixture of sorrow and regret. It caught him off guard so much, that he didn't even really think about it when Kaiba picked up Yugi and said, "It should be safe there.

"But someone is going to have to carry that," Kaiba said jerking his head towards the Millennium Rod that lay several feet away. He knew that he didn't want to touch it ever again, unless he wanted to risk Bakura controlling him again.

"I'll get it," Téa immediately stood up to grab it, wiping her tears as she went. It wasn't until the Rod was safely in her backpack, did Kaiba start walking in the direction of his home. Joey, finally coming out of his shock of seeing Kaiba this way, followed quickly behind them.

"Hold on Kaiba," Joey walked up to Kaiba's level. He looked at Yugi, and was disheartened to see that he wasn't getting any better. He still was unconscious. Whatever happened must have been pretty horrible. "Yugi said that Bakura was controlling you. Is that true?"

"What was your first clue?" Kaiba mumbled under his breath. Getting the hint that Kaiba didn't want to talk about it anymore, they all fell silent and continued to follow him. After a few more minutes of walking in silence, Joey had to talk again, for fear of being lost in his haunting thoughts.

"Do you know what happened to Yugi?" he looked at everyone in turn, hoping someone would be able to give him an answer. He hadn't known anything that was going on since Bakura separated them. Kaiba immediately stopped walking and turned to glare at Joey.

"You want to know what happened?" he practically yelled, making the trio wince. "It was all Bakura's fault! He controlled me, captured Yami, and put the crown in Yugi, not me! None of this was my fault, so stop blaming me!"

They all stared at him in disbelief, especially Joey who had to soak in all of this new information all at once.

"Kaiba, we're not blaming you!" Téa bravely took a step forward. When Kaiba was in his moods, he was like Joey when he didn't get the last slice of pizza. Yeah, not good. So Téa tried to choose her words with care, as to not upset him further. "We all know what it's like to be controlled my a Millennium Item, so stop trying to act like you're the only one who understands what you're going through!"

Kaiba stared at her for a few seconds, allowing the words to soak in before turning around and continuing to walk towards his home. "Whatever, just follow me." Joey and Tristan stared at Téa for a while as they were walking, with amazement. Did she just stand up to Kaiba?

Silence dominated as they walked for another half hour through the richest part of the city. Finally, after passing the twentieth estate, they finally reached the largest of them all.

"Here we are," Kaiba said as he walked past the gates. Joey, Téa and Tristan followed him in amazement.

"This is your _house_?!" Tristan said incredulously. It didn't look like the one they were used to seeing. Kaiba shrugged.

"Only on Saturdays."

The mansion looked like something out of a horror flick. It was bathed in dark green shadows from the sky. The windows were all cracked and dusty, and the front door looked like the hinges rusted off. Vines crept themselves all over the yard and up to the roof, sometimes seeping themselves through cracks in the wall. It could have been their imagination, but the faint smell of death seemed stronger here than anywhere else.

"This way."

Kaiba led them inside and headed towards the one of the bedrooms. The trio gasped at the size of the foyer. It would have been breathtaking if not for the spider webs vacating every corner, the dust that crept up from under their feet as they walked. Simply put, the mansion was merely a shadow of its past grandeur.

There was a staircase on the far end of the foyer, and a kitchen to the right of the entrance. To their left, was a bathroom, and next to that a randomly placed bedroom.

Joey, Téa and Tristan followed Kaiba to the spare room and gathered after he set Yugi on the bed.

"Don't you have a nurse or something?" Joey asked before he could stop himself. Only until after he said it, did he realize how dumb the question was. Kaiba seemed to be thinking the same thing, but for once, didn't let it show.

"And what difference would it make if I did Wheeler?" Kaiba said in a bitter voice, but Joey noticed that he didn't even look at him when he said it. Was he still feeling guilty after what Téa said to him?

"Well then what should we do?" Téa asked sitting next to Yugi. He was obviously still in pain and he was panting a little.

"I don't think there's anything we _can_ do Téa." Tristan said, walking closer to her. "We can't even think about what to do against magical wounds…"

"Well, we've got to do something!"

"I think Tristan's right Téa," Joey said. "I think the only thing we can do is wait and hope he gets better."

"So what are we supposed to do in the meantime?" Tristan couldn't help but ask. He hated to be doing noting when lives were at stake. Unfortunately, that seemed to happen a lot. The room was silent for a moment before Joey spoke up again.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I don't want to leave Yami with Bakura any longer than we have to."

"Well, you caught on quick." Tristan mumbled. Joey grinned.

"If you're going to rescue him, then you'll need to know where you're going." Kaiba spoke up. Joey looked at him and was pleased to find that he didn't have that lost look in his eyes as he did a few moments ago. "And it just so happens that I'm the only one here who knows were he's at."

"Alright then it's settled." Joey nodded at Kaiba as thanks. "Tristan, why don't you stay here with Téa and Yugi?"

"Wait, why?" Tristan looked at Joey as if he was out of his mind. Why does he have to miss out on all the action?

"Because if a zombie comes and attacks, they're going to need protection you moron." Tristan sweat dropped. Zombies….oh goodie.

"Alright Wheeler, let's go," Kaiba said. He was already at the door, ready to leave.

"Ok, ok, hold your horses." Joey turned back to Téa and Tristan. "Now if you see a zombie, try and get out of it's way. If the mansion starts to fall apart, then grab Yugi and run, got it?"

Tristan rolled his eyes. "Okay, _mom_."

Joey grinned and followed Kaiba out the door. Just as they were about to leave, Téa came running up to them.

"Wait hold on," she ran up to Joey and gave him the Millennium Rod. "Just in case you need it."

"Oh, right. Thanks Téa!" As he put the Rod in his pocket, he noticed Kaiba eyeing him wearily, but decided to ignore it. "Alright, lets go."

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For about an hour, Kaiba and Joey walked in silence towards Bakura's headquarters. Joey found this unnerving. Usually, in normal situations, Kaiba would be throwing insults at him left and right. However, today was different. It actually seemed like they were on the same side for once. But it wasn't until they reached Bakura's headquarters that Joey realized how much he missed the old Kaiba.

"Wow, it stands out, doesn't it?" Joey looked awed as he stared at the flawlessly white building. Compared to the rest of Domino, it was like finding a raging volcano in the middle of a vast ocean. It just stood out.

"Come on," Kaiba walked past the blinking sign that familiarly said: "Bakura: Evil Genius, King of Thieves. HQ."

As they entered inside, it was, once again, empty. Joey looked around the place, blinking his eyes at the brightness. As before, the entire interior was completely white, just like the outside.

"Jeez, how are we supposed to find our way in this place?"

"Just follow me," Kaiba said walking to the left. Joey quickly followed.

"How do you know where to go?" Joey asked for a few minutes of going left, right, right, left, over and over again.

"I told you, I've been here before."

"I know that, but you still remember where to go? This place is one big maze." Joey said. He was starting to get tired of each hallway, turning into another hallway behind each door.

"Wheeler, I'm a child billionaire in charge of a huge gaming company. You mean you wouldn't expect me to memorize my way through a simple building?" Kaiba found it hard to keep the smirk off his face as he said this.

Joey had nothing to say to this however, and continued walking behind him. Neither one spoke again until Kaiba found the door he was looking for.

"This is the door." he said as he opened it and looked inside.

The room was the same as he last left it: White.

The only difference was the containment cell Bakura had Yami in. Kaiba looked to where he had seen Millennium Items before. Nothing was there now.

"Do you really think he'll show up in here?" Joey asked as he stepped beside Kaiba. It seemed like any other part of the building except it wasn't a hallway.

"He'll find us no matter where we're at." Kaiba looked as he heard a noise coming from behind the door across from them. Suddenly, the door opened, and Bakura walked out from behind it, carrying his trademark evil grin. Joey found it very hard to keep his anger inside.

"You jerk!" Joey took only one step forward, intent on pulverizing him when Bakura held up a warning hand.

"Tut, tut. You wouldn't want to hurt your Pharaoh friend, now would you?" The Millennium Ring flashed, and the whole building seemed to pulsate with the Ring's energy. Suddenly, a hole appeared about 3 feet away from where Bakura was standing. A giant dome rose out from the hole, and inside that dome, was Yami.

What, was he connected to the place or something?!

"Pharaoh!" Joey yelled, almost forgetting Bakura was in the room. "Don't worry, I'll get ya out of there!"

Yami looked at them with surprise and fear. "No…What are you two doing here?!" Bakura laughed, which only seemed to enrage him.

"You two seriously can't hope to get the Pharaoh back do you?" he tapped on the dome that imprisoned Yami. "This glass is one-hundred percent magic proof. So if you planned on getting him out that way, sorry to disappoint you."

"That's not what we were planning!" Kaiba spoke up suddenly. Joey looked up at him in hopes that he had a good plan. "We were hoping that you would engage in a trade."

Bakura raised his eyebrow in interest. "And what would you have that would be good enough to trade for the Pharaoh?"

Without warning, Kaiba stuck his hand inside Joey's pocket and took out the Millennium Rod.

"Hey-Kaiba!"

"What about this?" Kaiba held the Rod up for Bakura to see, as if he needed to check its authenticity. Bakura's smirk, if possible, grew wider.

"You mean you want to trade the Pharaoh and half of the power of the Millennium Puzzle for one Millennium Item? I don't know if that seems fair…" Bakura looked at Kaiba and the Ring glowed. Joey caught on quickly.

"Kaiba no! Let go of it!" Joey yelled intent on knocking the Item from his hand. But it was too late. The Millennium Rod glowed in unison to the Ring and Kaiba's eyes glazed over once more.

"But if you include yourself in the package, then I'll be happy to oblige!" Bakura laughed maniacally. At the same time, the dome concealing Yami was lifted, and he ran towards Joey.

"What's going on?" he yelled over Bakura's continuous laughter. He didn't like the look in Kaiba's eyes at all.

"Bakura's controlling him using the Rod!" Joey wanted to run over to him and grab the Item. But remembering what happened in the park earlier that day made him hesitate. If Kaiba and Bakura held that much power together, then he was not the person to confront him.

"I'll free him," Yami said, the Puzzle glowing, but Bakura intervened.

"I don't think so! Kaiba, get rid of them! I want them out of here!" Bakura yelled as the Ring and the Rod glowed in unison once again.

At once, the Rod began to pulsate with power, that seemed to turn the room gold. All of a sudden, an energy blast shot from the Rod and hit the wall, mere feet from where Yami and Joey were standing.

"Run!" Joey yelled and ran out of the room with Yami right behind him. The whole building started to shake as the energy from the Item rippled through it. Somehow, they found themselves at the exit faster than they would have thought possible. Once they were "safely" in the woods, they turned back just in time to see Bakura's Headquarters disappear into thin air.

"What the…what happened to the place?" Joey stared at the spot where the obnoxious white building used to stand. "How can it disappear?" He looked at Yami and was surprised to find that he wasn't looking at the building, but at the ground with a sad look on his face.

"How could I have let Kaiba do that?" Yami said almost to himself. Joey immediately felt sorry for him. He knew he would feel the same way, even if it was Kaiba.

"Hey, don't worry. There was nothing either of us could have done to stop him." Joey looked him over. "You're alright, right? He didn't do anything to you?"

Yami smiled at him. "No Joey, I'm fine." He took a deep breath and continued. "But you're right. What's done is done. But now we need to find a way to save him. There's no telling what Bakura could do with him."

"Yeah. We'll find them again and make Bakura pay!"

Yami smiled gratefully at Joey's determination. It was then he started to wonder where everyone else was, so he asked Joey. But his expression wasn't what he expected at all.

"Yeah, everyone's back at Kaiba's place." Joey said awkwardly. "But…er, there's a little problem." Yami blinked.

"What is it?"

Joey sighed as he began leading him in the direction of Kaiba's mansion. "Come on, I'll tell you on the way."

* * *

Well and there you have it! Odd huh?

Well, tell me what you think. Yay or Nay? Just kidding...kind of kidding...lol

I'll update soon! Cya!

Yugisrose


	7. Chapter 7

"_Yeah, everyone's back at Kaiba's place." Joey said awkwardly. "But…er, there's a little problem." Yami blinked._

"_What is it?"_

_Joey sighed as he began leading him in the direction of Kaiba's mansion. "Come on, I'll tell you on the way."_

Corona

Chapter 7

The sky seemed darker than usual as Joey and Yami headed back towards the Kaiba's Saturday mansion. After Joey had finished telling Yami what had happened to Yugi, he hastened to get back to the building as quickly as possible. Joey really couldn't blame him. After all, he and Yugi are really close and it would be natural for Yami to want to protect him. But Yami was running so fast towards the mansion that Joey found it hard to keep up. Not only that, but zombies still roamed the streets and he really didn't want to become a snack for one of them, so Joey was very grateful to come up to the front gates of the old looking building.

As they approached the open front door, Yami looked like he wanted to just run in there, so Joey stopped him.

"Hold on a sec," Joey said panted. He could see the impatience in Yami's eyes. "Look, we haven't really looked this place through since we came so we don't know if there are any zombies hiding out here. So try to be quiet?"

Yami looked for a split second that he forgot all about the zombies, but then nodded and they both walked inside.

As soon as they both were inside, Téa came rushing towards them and gave Yami a big hug.

"Oh I'm so glad to see you! Are you alright?" she said as she finally let him go.

"Yes, I'm fine." Yami looked at her and was slightly relieved to notice that she was as well. "What about Yugi?"

Without a single word, Téa motioned them into the room where she came out of. Once in the room, Yami went straight to Yugi's side. To Joey, it looked like Yugi had gotten worse. He looked, if possible, paler, and he was panting more. Now Joey was starting to get more worried. What would happen if they couldn't help him?

"He hasn't woken up at all?" Joey asked Téa and Tristan. "Nothing?"

The both shook there heads.

"No zombies have been around either." Tristan said. "Let's just hope it stays that way."

Joey nodded and looked towards Yami. He was sitting next to the bed, with his eyes closed, and a hand over Yugi's chest. Knowing not to disturb him, he kept quiet. Silence reigned for about five minutes until Yami opened his eyes and gasped.

"What's wrong?" Téa asked immediately. Like everyone else, she seemed to only endure the silence. Yami took a couple more seconds to answer.

"For a split second, I could feel his pain…"

"It's hurting him still?" Joey asked. He still had some slight hope that Yugi was getting better. But now, that hoped had crashed into a pile of dust.

"Do you know exactly how he absorbed the crown?" Yami asked.

"No…the only person who knows that is Kaiba." Tristan said. "But he didn't exactly tell us any details…"

Yami mentally growled. It seemed like Bakura had everything planned out before he could think of what he was doing. Kaiba not being here to give him crucial details would be an example.

_Of course…_

"What do you think we can do for him?" Tea asked. Yami stayed silent for another minute before answering.

"I think that I might be able to remove the crown from inside him…"

Joey blinked. "You can do that?" Yami looked up uncertainly.

"I might. I have never done anything like this before, so I'm not sure if it will work. I would be using the Puzzle, but mixing different kinds of magic could turn out with devastating effects."

"Well I'd say it's worth a shot right?" Tristan spoke up after no one said anything for the fifth time. Joey nodded slightly, and Téa looked anxious.

"Alright then…" Yami closed his eyes again, and the Millennium Puzzle and his hand glowed with a light brighter than anything they have seen since Bakura's wrath upon the city. Yami then put his hand on top of Yugi's chest, and everyone in the room gasped as his hand seemed to melt within Yugi. A few seconds later, Yami opened his eyes again and hissed in pain. He quickly withdrew his hand and the glowing faded. At the same time, Yugi let out an ear piercing scream. Tea audibly gasped and Joey rushed to the bedside to keep Yugi still.

"Oh, Yugi!" Yami yelled over the screams. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Within thirty seconds, Yugi's screams died down, and he became still once more. Yami slowly put a hand on Yugi's arm with tears in his eyes.

"Oh Yugi…"

"Oh, don't do that again…" Tea whispered. She had tears streaming down her face and Tristan put a hand on her shoulder.

Yami sighed. "I wouldn't dare. Like I thought, mixing magical energies can produce devastating effects. It seems that this is no different."

"So I guess that getting that Crown out is out of the question now, huh?" Tristan asked, still trying to comfort Tea. Yami nodded.

"Yes. I think that if I tried to do it again…the Crown would probably take his soul too…"

"What?" Joey sat down on the bed. The whole thing had him shaken up too. "How can that happen?"

"The Crown seems to have connected itself to his soul. I'm not sure how that happened, which is why I wish Kaiba was here to fill us in…"

The room was silent for a little while whilst everyone considered the possibilities. Then, out of the blue, Yami spoke up.

"Well, if I can't take the crown out, then maybe giving him some of my energy will help…"

"Can you really do that?" Tristan said. Everyone seemed to look up at him in shock over the words.

"Yes," Yami said, putting his hand over Yugi once again. "He is drained of his energy, probably from the crown. Maybe giving him some back will help him…"

"If that really will work," Tea said as she stepped forward. "Can you give him some of mine too?"

"Yeah!" Joey said. "Good idea! Can we do that?"

Yami stared at them for a second as if debating something. But then he nodded. "Give me your hands."

They all did as he asked, and as they did so, were reminded of the vow of friendship they did long ago…

"Alright," Yami said as the puzzle started to glow. "Let's hope this works."

* * *

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long wait, but I was busy.....

And sorry that this chapter was so short. I'll try and keep up with updating. I'll get on with my other fics to. .

Thanks for keeping in touch! Chapter 8 is coming!

Yugisrose


	8. Chapter 8

Phew! Hey guys! Finally after a long time, here's the next chapter! Sorry it took me forever...I had to get back into the mood. But now I'm back on top of it and I'm hoping to get more chapters out, more frequently! And to celebrate, here's an extra long chapter, that I fused 2 chapters into 1! Yay!

* * *

Corona Chapter 8

After a ten minutes of sitting in silence, Yami, Joey, Téa and Tristan finally were able to take a break.

They had been giving some of their energy to Yugi, who had looked a little better now that they were finished. For that, Yami was extremely grateful for Yugi had been in a lot of pain earlier. Now, he could be sleeping.

"Do you think it will work?" Tristan said taking a deep breath. It took a minute to get used to the energy drain, no matter how small or large it was.

"Yes," Yami said. Even though all four of them contributed some of their energy, they still needed to give a lot in order to help Yugi. But Yami was still careful not to drain everyone too badly. "It's helping already. Thank you…"

Joey, Tristan and Téa smiled, but then there was silence for a few minutes. Then once Téa realized that Yugi would be okay, she thought of a question.

"Ok, so you guys didn't exactly fill us in," she said looking at Joey and Yami. "Why didn't Kaiba come back with you?

Yami flinched at the question and looked back down at Yugi. Joey figured that he was still feeling a little guilty so he explained.

"Well Bakura wanted to trade for Yami's freedom," he said. "So he decided that he would trade Yami for Kaiba and the Millennium Rod."

"And Kaiba was okay with this?" Tristan said, realizing where this was going.

"Well, I wouldn't say he was okay with it, but he agreed."

"And I'm going to rescue him as soon as I can," Yami said without looking up. Everyone stared at him for a second.

"Well, we'll be with ya every step of the way, right?" Tristan rose a fist in the air and looked at Joey and Tea who both nodded.

"Oh, wait," Joey said, looking troubled. "We won't be able to find Bakura's hideout again though…"

"Why not?" Téa asked.

"Well it kinda disappeared into thin air…"

"It _what _now?"

"Joey," Yami spoke up, looking slightly amused. "The building didn't actually disappear."

When Joey still looked confused, he continued.

"It was an illusion. Bakura wanted us gone for the time being, and us knowing that he had Kaiba, he didn't want to risk us going back into his hideout. So he made it seem invisible."

Joey stood there speechless for a moment before Tristan broke the silence.

"Well of course he can do that…wonderful."

Their talk was interrupted when a large crash echoed throughout the mansion. All four of them looked up, startled.

"W-what was that?" Téa looked out the door nervously. Joey and Tristan walked out of the room to check it out.

"It could be a zombie," Joey said. "With all of the noise we were making in here, I'm surprised that they didn't come earlier."

"Well, you wanna check it out?" Tristan looked at him. Joey smirked.

"Sure."

As they started to walk off in the direction of the noise, Téa tried to stop them.

"Guys wait! Are you sure this is such a good idea?"

"Joey, Tristan," Yami stood up and walked to the door as well. "Just ignore it. It's best to stay here."

But Joey and Tristan already went up the staircase and down the hallway to investigate. Téa, not wanting to see them go alone, went after them.

"Téa, wait!"

"Don't worry, I'm going to get them back. You stay with Yugi, ok?" She said as she ran up the stairs, two at a time. "I'll be right back with those idiots."

"Téa-" Yami almost yelled, but decided it was pointless. They were in the next room already. He let out a worried sigh and walked back to the bed. Once he got there, he realized that Yugi was waking up. "Yugi!"

Yugi slowly opened his eyes and looked at Yami wearily. "W-wha…"

As Yugi woke up more and more each second, Yami wondered how he was awake so quickly. Minutes earlier, it didn't seem like he would wake up anytime within the next few days. But now…

"Wait…Yami?" Yugi said once he was fully awake. He tried to sit up, only to get a sharp pain in his chest that made him recoil. Yami pushed him back down.

"You're not getting up for a while partner," Yami said. Yugi looked around the room before looking back at Yami.

"Where are we, and how did you escape from Bakura?"

"That is a long story, that I will tell you later," Yami said. "As for where we are, we are in Kaiba's mansion. He saw fit to give us shelter here until you healed."

Upon remembering what happened earlier, Yugi sits up successfully this time, thinking about what happened.

"Yugi, you should really lay down."

"I'm fine, really," he said looking at him. He winced a little but tried not to show it. "Where's Kaiba, and everyone else?"

"Joey, Téa and Tristan are fine," Yami said. "They are investigating the house for zombies. As for Kaiba…that's a part of the long story that I said I would tell you later."

Yugi looked at him sharply. "What happened? What's wrong?"

Yami looked at him surprised. He forgot that Yugi could read him like an open book. He sighed.

"Fine, I'll tell you…"

So Yami spent the next five minutes telling Yugi what happened at Bakura's headquarters. When he was finished telling him Yugi looked ready to jump out of bed that moment and head to Bakura's HQ.

"So let's go save him!"

"Yugi, you're in no condition to be going anywhere for a little while." Yami looked at Yugi sternly as if daring him to try and get up and leave. "Second…we don't have a plan. Kaiba's under Bakura's will now and we don't know how to break it."

Yugi looked down in defeat. Yami was kind of right. They didn't have a plan and anytime he ever acted without one always got him into trouble.

But before either of them could say another word, Joey, Téa and Tristan walked into the room.

"Well we didn't find any-" Joey stopped in mid sentence when he noticed Yugi was awake. "Yugi!"

The three of them rushed to the bedside looking anxious.

"You're awake!" Téa said happily. "How are you?"

Yugi smiled at them. "I'm fine."

"That's good," Tristan said. "So how do you like Kaiba's Saturday mansion?"

"Saturday?" Yugi said looking around the room. "Isn't that the best one he's got?"

"Wait wait wait, hold the phone," Joey said waving both hands in the air. "Just how many mansions does he have?"

"Joey, he has one for every single day of the week." Tristan said rolling his eyes. "Seriously, you must be the only person in town who doesn't know that."

As Joey and Tristan began to argue, Yami suddenly noticed how the tension in the room seemed to lift once Yugi woke up. Maybe it was his imagination, but at least things were taking a step for the better now…

"You know what I just relized?" Joey said with such a serious tone that almost caused all the tension to come back.

Spoke too soon…

"…I'm hungry…"

Tristan face palmed, and Yami, Yugi and Téa sighed in relief. Joey could be a handful sometimes.

"Okay, let's see what Kaiba has to eat in his best mansion." Téa laughed.

"Okay, me and Tristan will go look through the kitchen and see if the zombies left us any food." Joey said heading towards the door with Tristan by his side.

"And what are you going to do if a zombie sneaks up on you?" Téa asked stepping towards them. "I'll be your lookout."

She looked towards Yami and Yugi. "I'll be both of your lookouts. The kitchen is right across the hall anyway."

"Yeah that'll work!" Joey said as he, Tristan and Téa walked out. "We'll be back in a bit!"

After the three of them left, there was a small silence and all that could be heard was Joey and Tristan going through all the cabinets in the kitchen.

"Yugi," Yami finally decided to ask after a few minutes. Yugi looked up at him in curiosity. "How did you absorb the crown?"

Yugi looked at him in shock for a couple of seconds before looking down again.

"It was an accident…"

Yugi then told him of how Kaiba was being controlled by Bakura and how the crown reacted. Yami found it strange, but didn't question it more than he had to. Something about it was bothering Yugi, and he wanted to find out what it was. But before he could try and figure that out, Yugi got out of bed and stood up. Yami grabbed his arm.

"Yugi, you shouldn't be out of bed just yet!"

"But I can't just stay in bed!" Yugi looked at Yami shockingly. "Besides, I feel fine."

"Really?" Yami said. He only let go of Yugi's arm because he could tell he wasn't lying.

"Yeah," Yugi said. He suddenly looked suspiciously at Yami. "What did you do?"

"Do?" Yami looked up in surprise.

"Yeah. I have the feeling you did something to make me feel better…didn't you?"

"Er…" Yami avoided looking at him. He knew Yugi would never have approved of them giving him their energy and if he was conscious at the time, he would of forbade it…which is one of the reasons why Yami was reluctant to tell Yugi what they did. Now however, it seemed as though he had no choice. So he told Yugi what happened, and Yugi reacted just as he predicted he would.

"W-what?" Yugi sat back down on the bed. "But you guys shouldn't have done that! Really, it was unnecessary!"

"No, it wasn't," Yami said. "We weren't about to let you suffer."

"But I wasn't _really_. I'm sure it was just nothing or-"

"No," Yami cut him off looking stern. "It wasn't. That crown did some damage. You've…been ill, and there was no way I could leave you that way."

Yami's voice trembled a little but he tried to hide it. He failed miserably though as Yugi immediately rushed over and hugged him.

"Oh Yami, I'm so sorry!" Yugi said with a shaky voice. "I know, I've been a horrible burden!"

"Yugi-"

"And Kaiba! I know he feels guilty for what happened, but it's not his fault! He needs to know that he's not the burden around here-"

"Enough." Yami said. It came out in a half whisper, but it was enough to make Yugi stop whatever it was that he was saying. "Don't think that. You were never a burden."

Yugi released him and looked into his eyes as if trying to make sure he wasn't lying.

"Why would we have healed you if we thought you were a burden anyway?" Yami said. He wasn't sure when or how the thought got into Yugi's head, but it needed to stop. It was nonsense.

Yugi didn't answer, but just looked down, so Yami continued. "Besides, wouldn't you have done the same thing if our situations were switched?" Yugi looked up, knowing he was right. If any of his friends were in trouble, he wouldn't hesitate to help them in anyway he could.

"Well…thank you…" Yugi said. Yami smiled.

But just then, their conversation was cut short when Téa screamed. Yami and Yugi both rushed to the door as fast as they could, and the sight they saw was alarming.

A zombie what looked like it could have been Kaiba's butler at one point was advancing on Téa with it's decrepit arms reached out. Joey and Tristan quickly ran in front of her with pots and knives in both of their hands.

"Take this, ya freak!" Tristan yelled and he and Joey threw every pot and knife at the zombie they could hold. But they might as well have thrown dirt on it. The fact that the pots made loud noises when they banged against the ground, and that the knives stuck into it's bloodless flesh only agitated it.

Angered, the zombie ran full speed towards the three, but being quicker and more alive, they were able to easily dodge out of the way. This caused the zombie to crash full on into the wall, and fall with a disgusting crunch onto the floor.

All five of them stared at it waiting for it to get back up, but before the zombie had a chance to, the entire mansion started to quake.

"W-what's going on?" Téa asked with a squeaky voice. Pieces of the ceiling was starting to fall and the amount that was falling was growing with each second.

"The house is collapsing!" Yami yelled over the rumbles of objects falling from upstairs.

"Well then let's get outta here!" Joey yelled as loud. Taking his advice, everyone sprinted for the front door.

By the time they got to the curb, the house had completely collapsed within itself, and crumbled with an almighty crash. Smoke started to fill the area and seep through the neighboring houses like some obnoxious gas.

Minutes went by as they all stared at the once grand mansion that was now nothing but a pile of rubble on the ground.

"….Oops…" Joey finally said.

"Kaiba won't like this," Tristan said. Then he thought about it for a second and shrugged. "Eh, he's got 6 more…"

"What are we going to do now?" Téa said.

"Maybe we shouldn't be here," Yami said. "That crash is bound to attract a lot of unwanted attention."

"Look," Yugi said, pointing down the road. Everyone looked and there were already a large group of zombies walking in their direction.

"Quick," Yami said as they all started to find someplace to hide. They all decided to go behind some other house that seemed abandoned. Once they were sure that they lost the zombies, Tristan spoke up.

"So…now what?"

"We need to find another place to stay, that's what," Téa whispered, careful not to attract anything else.

"Yes, but where?" Yami said looking around, just to make sure they lost the zombies that almost found them.

"We could go to my place," Joey suggested.

"No way," Téa shivered. "We saw your Dad, and believe me, he's no better as a zombie."

"Hey, why not your place Yugi?" Tristan said looking at him. "Is it still standing?"

"Uh…I don't know," Yugi blinked. "I haven't even seen it yet."

He looked down in thought. He didn't even think about going back home to see if his Grandfather was okay. Yugi immediately felt guilty about forgetting about him but pushed it aside as a new emotion came: fear.

What if his Grandfather turned into a zombie like everyone else? He was afraid that seeing Solomon as a zombie would scar him for life, even if everything turned back to normal. But Yami must have been able to tell what he was thinking.

"Don't worry Yugi," he said. "I'm sure that Grandpa isn't a zombie."

"How do you know?" Yugi looked at him, as did everyone else.

"Well, it seems that so far, whoever _hasn't_ turned into a zombie all have connections to the millennium items. Everyone that stayed normal either has a millennium item, is connected with one, or has been affected by one," he looked at Joey, Téa and Tristan. "Which is where you three come in, and also Grandpa."

"You mean that Grandpa might not have turned into a zombie because the Millennium Puzzle affected him somehow?"

"It's possible."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Joey said triumphantly and pointed off in a random direction. "Off to Yugi's house!"

"His house is in the _other_ direction Joey," Tristan rolled his eyes, amused.

"Oh…"

Despite the conversations they were having only moments before, the walk to the game shop was very quiet. Perhaps it was because no one wanted to attract anymore zombies, or that they simply had nothing to say. But that all changed once they reached their destination.

The Turtle Game Shop was miraculously, still standing. Although it looked five hundred years older than it really was, it seemed sturdier than all the other buildings. But that didn't count for the fact that it still looked like a dump. The building itself seemed to have a grayish tint that was seen even with the green shadows reflecting off of the sky. All of the window were shattered so that nothing but shards of glass lay everywhere around it. The wall were covered with weeds, grime and cob webs. Simply put, it did not look inviting.

They all walked cautiously towards the front door. The "Closed" sign, which was on the ground opposed to on the door, was barely visible through the grime that covered it. Joey opened the door.

The inside of the shop was just as uninviting as the outside. Duel monster cards littered the floor as if a hurricane blasted through, and were covered in so dirt, they could barely tell which card was which. The cash register laid sideways on the floor next to the counter with it's contents spread about almost as bad as the cards underneath them. Glass lay on top of everything else, the same way as it was outside, so that with each step they took, it sounded like they were walking on frozen, dead leaves.

"Grandpa?" Yugi called out to the house.

"Shhhh!" Tristan whispered pointing at the open windows indicating that anything outside could hear them too, but he was ignored.

"Hey Gramps! Ya in here?" Joey yelled. His voiced traveled throughout the house, just as Yugi's did, but there was nothing answering them back. They stood there for a moment, straining their ears for any sign of life or undead.

"Wait, what was that?" Téa whispered. They all listened and heard what she did. There was an odd rattling sound coming from the closet from behind the counter.

Without a word, Yami walked over to the closet and began to open it.

"Wait, don't!" Tristan yelled, but it was too late.

When he opened it, a half of dozen things fell out, including:

"Grandpa!" Yugi cried out.

* * *

Heheh, kind of a cliffy, yes? Let me know what'cha think! All of your reviews and responses keep this going! I'll be updating soon, so be on the lookout!

Until next time. ;P

Yugisrose


	9. Chapter 9

_Without a word, Yami walked over to the closet and began to open it._

"_Wait, don't!" Tristan yelled, but it was too late._

_When he opened it, a half of dozen things fell out, including:_

"_Grandpa!" Yugi cried out._

Corona Chapter 9

Solomon looked up after he fell out of the closet and yelled, "Yugi!" He then hugged his grandson.

"I'm so glad you're not a zombie!" Yugi let go of him so he could get a good look at him. Solomon looked older than he's ever looked, but otherwise, he was okay.

"Me to m'boy," Solomon said. He then noticed Joey, Tristan and Téa. "Oh and you three are alright as well! Wonderful!"

Then his eyes rested on Yami. "Wait…Pharaoh?"

"Um…hi?" Yami said uncomfortably and waved slightly. Solomon looked from him to Yugi, back and forth unable to believe his eyes.

"W-what is going on here? Why are you two separated?"

"Why else?" Tristan spoke up.

At first, it seemed like Solomon was going to flip out. But then he seemed to control himself and nod in grim understanding.

"That green light…yes. Right sorry for that, it just surprised me…" he looked out the windows as if to make sure there was nothing outside them, and then motioned for everyone to follow him into the living room.

Everything in the living room was either knocked over, broken or missing. And although cobwebs vacated more of the corners here than any other part of the house, the sofa was the only thing that remained in it's proper spot, and somewhat devoid of dust. Upon noticing that, everybody took a seat.

"So you've seen what's been going on?" Yami asked Solomon once everyone was situated.

"Of course I have!" Solomon said indignantly. "Why do you think I was hiding in an old closet?"

"You weren't attacked, were you?" Yugi asked worriedly but Solomon just winked.

"Don't think they'd actually get me do you?" he smirked, but then frowned after a couple of seconds. "But I have seen them…those zombies."

Everyone looked at him waiting for him to go on.

"Quite a few attacked my shop. I don't know why they kept coming here…it was almost as if they were looking for something."

Yami and Yugi exchanged uncomfortable looks, but let Solomon continue.

"So I just hid a lot and they eventually stopped coming," Solomon sighed. "So naturally when I heard you all come in, I hid."

"Guess better safe than sorry," Téa said.

"Hey Gramps, I've got a question for you," Joey spoke up suddenly. Everyone looked at him because he sounded so serious. "Do you have any food?"

Solomon chuckled as Tristan hit Joey with a dusty pillow. "Shockingly I do. What will ya have?"

Due to popular demand (mainly Joey's and Tristan's) Solomon agreed to cook pancakes if the stove still worked. And while Téa was worried that the smell would attract zombies, Solomon assured her that they couldn't smell.

"I threw a whole garlic at them the first time they come in," he said while he tested the burners. Luckily it was a gas stove so it lit immediately. "They weren't fazed by it at all!"

"But a garlic really isn't a good indicator that-"

"Have _you_ smelled a garlic lately? It has a rank odor. And I don't use the word 'rank' often."

While Solomon was busy making pancakes with Téa in the kitchen, and while Joey and Tristan were arguing over which fruit is the best in pancakes, Yami was having a small conversation with Yugi.

"We're going to have to tell Grandpa what happened today," Yami said. "It's not fair to leave him out."

"I know…" Yugi said looking at the floor. "I just don't know if he needs to be worried any more than he already is…"

"He'll be worried more if we don't tell him where we're going once we have to leave."

"…Yeah," Yugi sighed. "But let's only tell him the crucial things…nothing else…"

Yami nodded in understanding, as Solomon and Téa came in with plates of pancakes. So while everyone was eating, Yami wasted no time in telling Solomon of how Bakura used an evil crown to plunge Domino into darkness and that he needed all them Millennium items to do so. Yami also explained Kaiba's predicament.

"Ah, so Kaiba is with Bakura," Solomon said as he wiped his mouth with a dusty napkin. "How unfortunate…"

"Yes, but once we have a plan we're going to rescue him," Yami said looking stern.

"Hmm…that could be troublesome…" Solomon looked at everyone. "Did it not occur to you that Bakura has in his possession not only Kaiba and the Millennium Items, but also the Crown that made everything the way it was? With all of that, he could be unstoppable."

Yugi could almost feel everyone except his grandfather trying not to look at him. He tried his best to ignore it and said, "So then we'll have to catch him by surprise."

"Hey yeah!" Joey's face lit up in excitement. "If we sneak up on him-"

A sudden sharp knock at the front door left Joey's sentence unfinished. Everyone sat stiff still as the knock came again, fearing that a zombie or worse, Kaiba or Bakura found their hiding spot so quickly.

But…if it was, why would then knock?

Solomon quickly got up and went to the front door, with everyone else not too far behind. The knock came again, but a voice was accompanied with it.

"Hello? Is anybody in there? It's Ryou."

Tristan and Téa looked at each other in shock while Joey, Yami and Yugi just gasped. Solomon quickly opened the door and sure enough, stood Ryou. He looked a little tired and beat up, but he seemed immensely relieved not to find zombies on the other side of the door.

"Ryou, is that really you?" Téa gasped.

"Well come in, come in," Solomon motioned him inside. "You gave us a scare. Thought you were a zombie."

"Yes, sorry about that," Ryou stumbled into the games stop and Solomon shut the door, quietly. "But I smelled food and realized that no zombie would require actual cooked food to survive, so I figured that not everyone was turned into one."

Five minutes later found the seven of them back at the couch with Ryou finishing his second helping of pancakes.

"So what happened Ryou?" Tristan said. "You look horrible."

"Well, when the spirit of the Ring released the energy from the crown, which I'm sure he has explained to you, it separated him from my body for some reason and gave him one of his own." Ryou looked over at Yugi and Yami. "It looks like it's no different from you two…"

After they nodded, Ryou pulled out the Millennium Ring.

"Yes, so since we each had a copy of the Ring, the spirit held me captive in his new…building…"

Joey and Yami nodded in understanding, knowing he meant his headquarters.

"Anyway," Ryou continued. "Since we're like this, and the Millennium Items only work for the main wearer, he had me keep my copy."

"Wow Ryou," Joey said. " So how'd ya escape?"

"Simple really," he said putting his Ring back on. "He left me unattended for too long so I escaped. He really didn't have me guarded well to tell you the truth. But I'm sure that once he realized I'm gone, he'll be looking for me."

"No prob!" Tristan said. "We 'refugees' should stick together!"

Ryou smiled. "Thanks."

"So what do you mean when you said that the Millennium Items would only work for the 'main wearer'?" Yami asked.

"Oh, well the spirit realized that only I could control _my_ copy of the Ring. He couldn't do anything with it. The same goes for me with his Ring."

"So you're saying that if I tried using Yugi's copy of the Puzzle, it wouldn't work?"

"Yeah, it does."

While Yugi and Yami looked at each other in shock, Téa had a question.

"Did you see Kaiba at all?"

"No, why?"

Again, they had to explain what happened to Kaiba, and Yami's reaction was always the same.

"And we're going to rescue him as soon as possible." he said. "Once we have a plan."

"Hmm…" Ryou said. "Have you considered using bait?"

Everyone looked up at him in surprise.

"That could be very dangerous," Yami said.

"But if it means saving Kaiba and taking away some Millinnium Items…." Yugi looked at Yami.

"Then it could work for our benefit," Ryou nodded, finishing Yugi's sentence. "I could lead you around the Headquarters. I know it all by heart."

"What?" Joey exclaimed. "You memorized that maze?"

"Well sure. I was there when he created it."

"Hold on," Solomon spoke up. "I refuse to let you kids take part in anything dangerous."

"Grandpa," Yugi said. "If we don't stop Bakura soon, then things will never get back to normal again. How is that _not _dangerous?"

Solomon grumbled a little bit, but said nothing.

"Then it's settled!" Tristan said while giving a thumbs up to Ryou. "We go with Ryou's plan!"

"We didn't think of it yet Tristan." Yugi said.

"Yeah, like who's going to be the bait?" Joey said. He then pointed at Tristan. "I vote him."

"Hey!"

"I think you both would be a good distraction." Téa said a little annoyed. "So if you don't want to become bait, you should both keep it down!"

"Maybe there should be two groups," Yugi suggested. "One to distract Bakura, and get Kaiba, and the other to get the items."

"I'll distract Bakura." Yami said. "I owe him."

"And we'll help!" Tristan said with Joey nodding.

"Wha-it's too dangerous," Yami shook his head. "I'll do this alone."

"Too bad, cause we're going with you." Joey smirked. "We can distract pretty well, right Tristan?"

"You got it."

Yami looked like he wanted to argue some more, but thought better of it.

"Alright fine."

Ryou and Yugi looked at each other and nodded silently.

"Okay then," Ryou said. "Then Yugi and I will go find the Millennium Items. He has the Eye, Necklace, Scales and Key in a separate room. I can get in there."

Yami looked as though he didn't like that plan either, but thought better about arguing. Yugi was glad for that because that argument would turn out the same as Joey and Tristan's did just seconds ago.

"Wait, then what am I supposed to do?" Téa said looking a little angry.

"It's probably best that you wait here with Gramps," Joey said. When he noticed that Téa was starting to get very angry he put up his hands to tell her to calm down. "Someone needs to stay here with Gramps. You don't want to leave him here alone, do you?"

"That's right!" Solomon fake-pouted. "I get very lonely. It's nice to have someone to talk to."

That seemed to calm Téa down a bit, and she just looked sad. "Fine…just promise me nothing will go wrong?"

Yami smiled sadly. "You know we can't promise you that…"

* * *

Three hours later, Yami, Yugi, Joey, Tristan and Ryou found themselves sneaking back into Bakura's HQ. They walked through the front door very cautiously….almost.

"See Joey?" Tristan said after they were sure they weren't being watched. "I told you that this place was still here."

"No you didn't, he did!" Joey said pointing at Yami, who did indeed tell him that the HQ really didn't disappear. Tristan smirked.

"Yeah, but I agreed with him."

"Maybe you should keep down?" Yugi said nervously. "What Bakura hears us?"

"Yes, try and keep your distractions to yourself until we meet Bakura," Yami said pointing to a couple of hallways in front of them. There just so happened to be two ways they could go. "Ryou?"

Ryou nodded and took out his Millennium Ring. It glowed slightly and he nodded. "Bakura is with that way." He pointed to the hallway on the right, then to the left. "And the items are that way."

"Right," Yami said motioning for Joey and Tristan to follow him. Before they went towards the right hallway, they exchanged one final goodbye before they were separated. "Good luck to you two…"

Yugi and Ryou nodded.

"You too," Yugi said. "Be careful…"

And with that, Yami, Joey and Tristan went down the hallway to the right, while Yugi and Ryou went to the one on the left.

* * *

Hey guys! Sorry this chapter wasn't that exciting, but there will be more action next chapter. ^^ (Also sorry that I uploaded this, deleted it and re uploaded it again. I forgot to edit some stuff...)

Until next time!

Yugisrose


	10. Chapter 10

Hi guys! It's been a while since I've had an update, so here ya go!

* * *

Corona

Chapter 10

Yugi and Ryou were walking in almost complete silence in Bakura's hideout. Ryou was walking a little a head of Yugi with the Millennium Ring out. It had been pointing straight ahead of them for the past twenty minutes. Yugi decided to break the silence a little.

"It sure makes it a lot easier when your Ring can find the Millennium Items," he said looking at the object. It was giving off the same glow that all the Items give off when they're being used.

"Yeah, or else it would take a lot longer to find these things." Ryou smiled, almost proudly. "Still it's strange that they were pointing straight a head of us all this time, even when we would turn…"

Suddenly, right after he finished his sentence, all of the pointers turned to their right, pointing straight at the wall next to them. Ryou blinked.

"Huh…now that's strange. I wonder if they're in that room?"

Yugi didn't say anything. The crown inside him pulsed with a sudden renewed energy, and seemed to be trying to tell him something. There was a Millennium Item on the other side of that wall alright…but it was about to attack.

"Ryou move!" Yugi launched himself and Ryou out of the way just in time. A giant blast of energy burst its way through the wall that they were just standing in front of, leaving a gigantic hole. The beam of energy went straight through several more walls, leaving more holes throughout the building until it stopped many rooms down.

After Yugi and Ryou got their footing, they looked at where the energy blast came from, and saw Kaiba standing there with the Millennium Rod pointing out where he shot the beam. He slowly lowered his arm and looked at them when they realized that he was there.

"So you're surrendering yourselves to me? How…precious." Kaiba sneered, pointing the Rod at them both. His eyes were even starting to look like Bakura's.

"Kaiba, it's us!" Ryou yelled. "Don't you remember?"

Kaiba merely chuckled, his glazed eyes focusing on Ryou. "How…_foolish_."

A second blast of energy came faster than they were expecting. It made their way towards them faster than they could think to get away, but Ryou was ready. With a flash from the Ring, he put up his hand and a golden-semi transparent shield appeared and blocked Kaiba's attack. After the blast hit, the beam disappeared, along with the shield Ryou created.

"How'd you know how to do _that_?" Yugi looked at Ryou in shock. Ryou looked more pleased with himself than he had in a while.

"I guess I just picked it up from when Bakura kept me captive." He frowned as they looked back towards Kaiba. "But sadly it's the only thing I know how to do…"

"Touching," Kaiba smirked. The Rod glowed. "It's too bad you won't be able to protect yourselves for very long."

"Ryou," Yugi whispered quickly. "I know we came for the other Items too, but we won't be able to get them with Kaiba around. So let's just try and get the Rod. Maybe taking it will free him from Kaiba's control too…"

"Okay," Ryou said. He knew what he needed to do.

* * *

"Would you two _please_ keep it down?" Yami turned around angrily at Joey and Tristan, who were constantly arguing over how they would distract Bakura for the past half hour. Joey suggested that they all run around in very small circles around Bakura, getting him confused. Tristan thought they should insult him, making him angry, or do sneak attacks. Yami believed that neither one of their plans would work. "We don't want Bakura to know that we're here just yet!"

It was true that Joey and Tristan were being quite loud when they argued, and Yami was surprised that they had not been discovered yet. Their original plan was to get to the side of the building, farthest away from Yugi and Ryou as to distract Bakura. When Yugi and Ryou would get the millennium items, Yugi is supposed to give Yami a signal through their mind link, telling them to leave…just as long as Yami, Joey and Tristan could distract Bakura long enough for them to.

"Sorry, but it's so creepy in here," Joey said as he and Tristan stopped arguing. "Why did Bakura have to make this place so weird…and big? I forgot how we got to him the last time we were here…"

"Pffft. I can't believe you don't remember." Tristan rolled his eyes. Joey immediately flared up again.

"Yeah? I'd like to see you try!"

"Joey, Tristan! Stop fighting!" Yami whispered at them as Tristan opened his mouth to argue back. They looked at him questioningly, as he didn't yell. When they followed his gaze, they realized why.

In one of the rooms that they were standing next to, the door was open, and inside stood Bakura, who was leaning against the wall with an amused expression on his face.

"You know, if you were any louder, I think even Kaiba would be able to hear you." Bakura smirked.

There was a few seconds of silence as they all stared at him, still reveling in the shock of him standing there. Then, Tristan stepped forward into the room.

"Your momma's so dumb, she tripped over a cordless phone!"

Everyone's gaze focused on Tristan, and he looked at them all in turn. Joey's face immediately said, "That was hilarious!" because he was desperately trying not to laugh. Yami's face was that of pure horror, as if they were going to die any second. Tristan looked at Bakura's face. It was that of pure rage.

"Oh…" Tristan mumbled as Bakura took a step closer with the look of pure murder on his face. "Crap…"

"Make fun of my family all you want," Bakura said looking up with a crazed look in his eyes. He raised his hand and at the same time, the Millennium Ring glowed. A cackling ball of energy formed in his palm. "But it will cost you…"

Before they could try and get away, Bakura shot the energy ball towards them, and there was a giant explosion. Among the sounds and screams that pierced the air, there was the sound of the wall in front of them collapsing. When the dust cleared, Yami was helping Joey up and Bakura was in the same spot as before.

"Tristan!" Joey yelled at his friend. Tristan was slumped up against the wall unconscious. As they looked at him, blood was starting to seep through his shirt from where he was hit with Bakura's attack. Joey ran over to him, with Yami not too far behind.

Yami looked at Bakura, to find him smirking more than ever.

"Do you really think you can win?" Bakura said. "I know what your plan is."

Yami and Joey looked over at him in shock.

"You're trying to distract me so they can get to the Millennium Items." Bakura cackled again as Yami gasped. "How…naive."

* * *

The hallway shook as Kaiba unleashed more of the Rod's power.

"Ryou, run!" Yugi yelled as Ryou almost got hit with another energy blast. He was trying to distract Kaiba so that Ryou could grab the Rod. Needless to say, their plan was failing miserably.

"I know!" Ryou said moving farther from Kaiba. "I was just trying to get close…"

"You'll never get it!" Kaiba laughed with a sound that was not his own. They could see the black aura radiating from him.

"This isn't working!" Ryou was getting a little creeped out. "We need a different plan!"

Yugi thought for a couple of seconds on how they were trying to distract him. The whole time they were trying to get Kaiba to come out by trying to get him to remember. But what if they got to Bakura first? He turned to Ryou.

"Ok, I have one more idea to distract him with. What makes Bakura mad?"

Ryou blinked. "Mad? Why?"

"If we can get Bakura mad enough, his concentration could slip, and we might be able to get the Rod and save Kaiba!"

Ryou looked at him for a second before nodding. "Alright. I know plenty of things to make him mad. You get the Rod."

Yugi nodded and walked on the other side of Kaiba. Kaiba watched them the entire time, waiting for some sort of move. So when they both went to either sides of him, he raised the Rod.

"Hold on Bakura," Ryou called out. "It's just you and me again. Are you man enough to face me?"

Kaiba lowered his arm a fraction, but did nothing else but stare at Ryou.

"Yeah I know what happened to your village, your family," Ryou gulped but went on. Kaiba's eyes were widening with each word he spoke. "And I'll have to tell you that they were all worthless!"

Yugi was too busy to see Kaiba's face, as he was trying to sneak up to get the Rod. Ryou noticed that he was close to grabbing it, so he went on to distract Bakura.

"They didn't deserve to be sacrificed to make the Millennium Items! But perhaps they would have made decent coasters for my drinks!"

Whatever Ryou said did it. The air in the room got thicker and any lights that were on got dimmer. In the strange lighting of the room, the Rod grew brighter than anything, and it almost looked as though Kaiba's eyes and a red glow to them.

Yugi immediately jumped away from Kaiba and over to Ryou with a disturbed look on his face.

"Ok…This isn't what I had in mind," he said. Kaiba pointed the Rod at them.

"I'll tell you who's worthless!" Kaiba almost screamed. His voice sounded oddly distorted, like it was a mixture between his and Bakura's. Suddenly, a giant energy wave came out from the Rod, and towards Yugi and Ryou.

Yugi reacted without meaning to. He reached within himself and found the power of the Crown. After bringing the energy out, he used it to send a blast of energy towards the one Kaiba just shot. The two energies collided and the building shook so hard it could collapse at any moment…

When the heat from the two blasts dropped and the light faded, Kaiba was on the ground, and the Rod was a few feet away from him. Yugi stood there panting, as the blast took up quite a bit of energy. Not only that, but it felt like his hands and his chest were on fire. Not a comfortable feeling.

After Ryou recovered from the shock of the blast, he quickly walked over and grabbed the Rod.

"Wow, that was really close. How did you _d_o that Yugi?" Ryou looked over at him, and noticed he was in pain. He quickly walked over to him. "Hey, are you alright?"

It took a couple of seconds for Yugi to will the pain to go away, enough to where he could speak properly.

"Yeah, don't worry about it." he looked behind Ryou. "What about Kaiba?"

They both looked over to him just in time to see him sit up. They might as well have just pushed him down, because there wasn't a scratch on him.

"You fools," Kaiba said, nothing changed. "You will pay for that."

The dark aura was still present.

"What?" Yugi looked at him shocked. "But I thought that Bakura's control would break if he didn't have the Rod!"

"Well maybe not…" Ryou said stepping back a little as Kaiba stood up and gathered energy in his hand. "Oh great, he really didn't need the rod for anything, did he?"

"I think we should go…" Yugi said slowly as he started backing up towards the exit. If Kaiba could attack them without the Rod, there was no way they were going to get to the other Millennium Items now…

"Yeah, I agree with you…" Ryou said following Yugi. "Let's GO!"

At that, they both bolted for the exit and ran down the hallway. As they got to the end of the hallway, a blast of energy bolted through the walls and missed them by a foot. Behind that blast, was Kaiba, advancing on them quickly and looking as murderous as ever.

"Quick, go!" Ryou yelled and scrambled to get out of the hallway. When they got through that door, another white hallway greeted them. "Do you know how to get out of here?"

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention," Yugi said apologetically, but was cut off when another blast hit the wall to their left. "Let's just run until we hit the exit!"

So they did just that, weaving through the building like mice in an experimental maze, trying to find the exit. They almost got hit a few times before they saw the door they came from. They finally got to the exit, and ran out to the woods as fast as they could.

* * *

Yeah, I was going to continue on, but I felt that I should stop it there. Not a big cliffy, but there's still some.

Bonus points for those of you who noticed the Yugioh Abridged quote.

If there's any confusion or questions, let me know in a reveiw or send me a message! Thanks!

Yugisrose


	11. Chapter 11

Corona

Chapter 11

Bakura was still outraged.

"Stupid servant," he mumbled to himself. "Can't do anything right…"

He looked at Yami and Joey who were protecting their downed friend. Tristan was starting to come to, but his bleeding had increased to the point to where Joey had to take off his jacket and use it as a temporary bandage to stop the bleeding. Bakura readied himself to attack again by creating another energy ball in his hands. The light coming from the Ring was almost blinding.

But Bakura was never able to release that attack. For a punch came out of nowhere and slammed him hard across the face. After Bakura fell, Joey held his fist up where it had collided with Bakura's skull for a few seconds before dropping it, the murderous look on his face non dulling. Yami looked at him in shock.

"That…was a good hit Joey!" he said. Joey smirked.

"Doesn't take much." Joey walked back over to Yami and Tristan, who was still regaining consciousness. "He might have a lot of magic, but he's still doesn't know how to deflect _that_. How is he?"

Yami looked at Tristan, noticing that he seemed more awake by the second. "How are you doing?"

It took Tristan a couple of seconds to answer, but when he did, his voice was raspy. "I have a hole in my stomach. I'm just peachy…"

Joey was about to comment on Tristan's retained humor when he heard a noise behind them. Upon looking, he noticed that Bakura was standing up. "Uh oh…"

Yami looked as well, and glared. "Joey, you take Tristan and get out of here. I'll take care of Bakura."

Before Joey could argue however, Bakura ran up to them with unnatural speed. He made a quick jab at Yami, but he dodged the attack. After quickly gathering energy into his fist, Yami quickly punched Bakura back with equal force, sending him towards the opposite end of the room. Joey blinked.

"Now _that_ was awesome…"

"Change of plans," Yami went over to Tristan, and Joey followed. "Let's get out of here now, before Bakura recovers. Tristan needs to be treated."

"Wait, what about Yugi and Ryou?"

"If they're not outside waiting for us, then I'll come back in to get them. You can take Tristan back."

"But can't you just ask Yugi where they are with your mind link?" Joey looked puzzled as a troubled expression crossed Yami's features.

"I've been trying for a while now…but for some reason, I can't contact him…"

* * *

"I don't think he's following us anymore…" Ryou panted. He and Yugi ran as far into the woods as possible, to escape Kaiba. Thankfully, he did not chase them past the front door, but they continued running anyway, incase Kaiba tried to shoot them down again. They didn't stop running until they got closer to the edge of the forest, where it slowly turns into suburban housing, and then finally the actual city itself. Yugi didn't speak until they both caught their breaths.

"Yeah, he's stopped. And at least our venture wasn't completely wasted…"

Ryou blinked wondering what he meant, then realized. "Oh yeah! We have the Rod now!"

Ryou reached inside his back pocket and pulled out the Millennium Rod. It glistened brightly, even against the dull, green sky.

"I still wonder how Bakura was able to control Kaiba without him holding that…" Yugi said, looking at the Rod.

"I don't know, but I guess now's not the time to wonder about that," Ryou put the Rod back. "Don't you think you should tell Yami that we're out now so that they don't have to distract Bakura anymore?"

"Oh, yeah! Thanks for reminding me…" Yugi said, and closed his eyes so he could better concentrate on his and Yami's mind link. He went to use the link like they usually did, but something was off. Yugi was puzzled to discover some sort of barrier blocking it. He attempted to get past the blockade, but wished he hadn't. As soon as Yugi tried to get past it, his whole body felt like it was on fire. Immediately, Yugi stopped the connection, and when he opened his eyes, he realized that he was on the ground and Ryou was over him, calling his name.

"Wh-what?" Yugi sat up and winced as even more pain seared through his chest.

"What happened?" Ryou asked shakily. "Are you alright?"

It took Yugi a couple of seconds to answer, as he himself was trying to figure out what had happened exactly.

"Yeah, I'll be fine…"

Ryou looked at him closely. "But you were screaming! Are you sure?"

Yugi blinked in surprise, not remembering that particular fact, but shook it off.

"Y-yeah. Don't worry about it, okay? It was nothing…" Yugi looked away in attempt to try and pull himself together, as he was still panting and knew he must of looked pretty bad. It didn't even seem like a couple of seconds of trying to reach Yami, but it must have been longer. Yugi wasn't sure if the excruciating pain he experienced was because there was something wrong with their mind link, Yami or if it was the crown causing him trouble again. Either way, he didn't feel like discussing it now.

"Yugi," Ryou spoke softly, looking very troubled. "I'm your friend, remember? So…don't brush me off. Tell me what happened."

Yugi looked at him in shock, and wanted to tell him that he didn't mean it that way, when he stopped himself. He sighed and looked away.

"There was something blocking our mind link…"

Ryou let out a small gasp. "Do you think Yami's alright? What if Bakura did something?"

"I don't know, I can't reach him," Yugi sighed and looked back at Ryou. "But I don't think it was because of either of them. It might be because of me."

Ryou looked confused. "Why?"

So Yugi went on to explain how he absorbed the Crown. Ryou looked shocked.

"You mean the Crown that…" Ryou looked up at the dark green sky. "…no wonder…"

"What?"

Ryou didn't answer right away, but looked like he was mulling things over. But when he did answer, his voice was shaky again.

"Yugi, you must promise me that no matter what, you won't use the Crown's power again!"

"W-what?"

"Please Yugi, you mustn't! The Crown uses up any energy that you have, including the energy that keeps your soul together! If you use it too much, it will begin to rip your soul to pieces, until you're nothing but a hollow shell!"

Yugi stared at him in shock. If that was true, then the pain he was always experiencing after he used it was…

"How do you know this?"

"I was with Bakura when he stole it so I know a lot about it."

"Wait, he stole it from someone?" Yugi blinked.

"No, not technically. It was in some old Roman ruins."

The sound of distant voices cut their conversation short.

"That sounds like them," Ryou said with a little relief crossing his features.

They both stood up, (Yugi a little shakily) but Yugi stopped Ryou from going after them.

"Once we get back to the game shop, can you tell me all you know about the Crown?" Yugi asked. Ryou nodded and they both went in the direction of Yami and Joey's voices.

When they came into sight of each other, everyone let out a sigh of relief. They were all alive…

"Are you two okay?" Yami asked first, and Yugi and Ryou nodded.

"What about you guys?" Ryou asked, but his question was answered when they laid eyes on Tristan, who was looking a little worse for wear.

"We need to get him back home. He was hit with one of Bakura's attacks."

"Well, let's go!"

* * *

The walk back to the Game Shop was uneventful, until they actually got inside. Solomon and Tea's anxiety was enough to rile them all up. Solomon had a first aid kit laying around and was in the middle of bandaging Tristan's wound.

"It's not too bad, but you shouldn't be moving around too much…" he said as he but the final wrap on it. Tristan rolled his eyes as he laid down on the couch.

"That's going to be a little hard."

"I swear, you kids these days," Solomon mumbled to himself while putting away the first aid. "Can't go one day without getting into trouble."

"It's not like we have much of a choice," Joey said. "What would you rather have us do? Let Bakura win?"

Solomon didn't say anything as he went to put the supplies back. He passed Yugi, who muttered his thanks.

Yami and Tea were busy discussing what happened for the past half hour, while Ryou, Yugi Joey and Tristan were discussing the same thing. But now that Solomon had left the room, the four of them fell silent.

Ryou began thinking to himself what had happened to Yugi when he tried to contact Yami. He wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but knew that the Crown was responsible.

Ryou looked at Yugi and realized suddenly, that he was still in pain from the event. Whatever went on with the mind link, shook Yugi up pretty good, and it was still affecting him. Ryou didn't know if Yugi planned on telling Yami about it anytime soon, but if he knew Yugi even a little bit, he probably wasn't going to.

"Hey," Ryou said after he walked up to Yami after he was done talking to Tea. "Um…can I talk to you for a second? Over there?"

Ryou pointed to the kitchen, which was presently empty. Yami raised an eyebrow, but did not ask why. He merely followed Ryou into the vacant room. It wasn't until they were in the room alone with the door closed, that Yami spoke.

"What is it?"

"Um…" Ryou paused. He didn't think about what he was going to say before hand and wondered briefly on how to best approach it. "I was wondering…could you talk to Yugi for me? We had some…trouble earlier."

"What kind of trouble?" Yami was starting to look anxious, so Ryou tried to get to the point.

"Something went wrong…and I don't think he means to tell you about it." Ryou started to get nervous. Was he really doing the right thing?

"Why? What is it?"

"I don't know if I should say…but can you just talk to him? You'll probably see why."

And with that final sentence, Ryou left the kitchen, leaving Yami alone looking very puzzled and worried. Naturally, he went to get Yugi at once.

Yami found Yugi talking to his Grandfather on what went on at Bakura's HQ. He hated to cut them off, but he felt that he had to.

"Yugi, can I speak with you for a minute?" Yami said, giving an apologetic look towards Solomon. "Alone?"

Yugi blinked. "Oh…sure."

After assuring his grandfather that he would finish when he got back, Yugi followed Yami to the one of the spare bedrooms downstairs. The room had not been opened since Bakura turned the city the way it was, and it smelled of old dust and mold.

Once they were out of earshot, Yugi asked, "Something wrong?"

Yami looked at Yugi for a second and immediately knew what Ryou was getting at. He wasn't able to look at Yugi properly since they got back, but now that he can, Yami is startled that he didn't notice it earlier.

Yugi didn't quite look like himself. He looked quite pale, there were dark circles under his eyes. There was a subtle shake to his frame, and if Yami didn't know better, his eyes didn't have the same lively spark that they normally had.

Ryou was right…something went wrong.

"Yugi," Yami hesitated for a fraction of a second before continuing. "Is everything okay?"

A surprised look came over Yugi's face before he hid it. "Y-yeah, why?"

"Yugi, I know there's something wrong! Please, tell me what it is! I can help you…"

Yugi looked away for a moment, debating.

"_Well, I guess he should know about the mind link…_" he thought.

"Yugi?"

Yugi blinked. "O-oh yeah….well I know I couldn't reach you earlier…"

Yami's face softened. "Yes, I've had the same problem…Is it the Crown?"

Yugi nodded. "Yeah, I think so…"

Yami could easily see the pain that the Crown was giving him now, and was determined to find a solution. Then, he got an idea.

"Do you mind if I take a look through you?" he asked. Yugi looked at him knowing what he meant. Yami wanted to use the Puzzle to see what's wrong on _his_ side, hoping that it would provide better answers.

"Ok, go ahead."

Yami nodded, and his Puzzle began to glow. He put his hand on Yugi shoulder, to look into his mind towards the link. However, as soon as Yami's hand touched Yugi, a jolt of energy went between the two of them. Yami pulled his hand away, with the feeling it was in a raging inferno, while Yugi fell to his hands and knees, gasping for breath and holding his chest. After Yami had realized what had happened, he quickly kneeled down next to him.

"Yugi!" Yami said, extinguishing the glow on the Puzzle, which he believed was partially responsible for what had just happened. "I'm sorry! I didn't think that would happen!"

Yugi didn't respond. He shakily gasped a few breaths and sat in the same position. Yami was beginning to worry that he did some real damage.

Just then, the door opened with Joey standing in the frame. He took one look at the situation, and was next to them in seconds.

"What happened?" Joey asked looking between them. Yami looked as though he was close to freaking out, while Yugi looked like he was close to passing out.

"I-I think I set the Crown off with the Puzzle. Different kinds of magics are not supposed to be mixed…" Yami shakily said. Joey had never seen Yami look so nervous. "Yugi, say something!"

"Hold on…" Yugi barely whispered. His breaths weren't agonizing anymore, but he was still panting pretty hard. "Gimme a sec…"

A few seconds went by when all that could be heard was Yugi's panting, and the sound of everyone talking a few rooms down.

"You wanna lay down? There's a bed over there," Joey said pointing to the main bed in the room. He found it suddenly lucky that they were in a bedroom. But Yugi shook his head.

"Won't help…" he whispered.

"Well we have to do something!" Joey said putting a hand on Yugi's shoulder. "I mean, if you were in this much pain earlier, why didn't you say anything?"

Yami was glad that he and Ryou weren't the only ones who noticed Yugi's discomfort. Yugi sat up, his breathing slightly more in control, although he was still shaking a lot.

"Because we have more important things to worry about-"

"And you don't fall under that category?" Joey said in disbelief.

"Yugi, that's preposterous." Yami said. "If that was true, would we have spent the time to treat Tristan's wounds?"

"…This is different…"

"Yugi stop it!" Joey had enough. Yugi had said that with such defeat in his voice that a lump formed in his throat. He grabbed Yugi by the front of the shirt and dragged him forward, much to Yami's protests. Yugi winced again, but did not look away. "Do you think that we wouldn't care? That we shouldn't care? You're our friend Yugi, let us help you!"

Yugi quickly swiped Joey's hand away, his eyes not leaving Joey's. "Help how? This isn't something you can just bandage up you know. This Crown is inside me, and I have no way of getting it out! Thanks, but I'll deal with this myself…"

Yugi made to get up and leave, but Joey pulled him back down.

"Yugi, no you're not," Yami said, looking stern. Yugi looked ready to argue again, when Yami spoke over him. "What if did what we did back at Kaiba's mansion?"

Yugi thought back to when Yami said that he and everyone else gave him their energy to help him. It worked, but….

"No, I can't do that to you guys again."

"Well what if we were completely willing to, like always?" Joey looked at him straight in the eye. "I don't like seeing you this way bud."

Yugi sighed. "Thank you guys, really. But I can't let you do it. It probably wouldn't do much anyway."

"Why do you say that?" Yami asked but Yugi shakily stood up and began walking out before either of them could say anything.

"Sorry, but I need to do something. I'll be right back…" he said and with that, he exited the room.

Yami and Joey stood up, looking at the door he left through.

"Well that went well," Joey said sarcastically.

"He's not acting right," Yami said. Joey looked at him.

"What do you mean?"

"I think there's something he's not telling us."

* * *

Ta-da! Well thanks for reading this far! I'm sorry if this fic is getting confusing or anything. Sometimes I'm bad at explaining things...:P

A few of you guys got bonus points for noticing the Yugioh Abridged quote from the last one! If you want to look back, here's a guess: It would make a nice coaster for your drink. :P

Thanks for all the reveiws! I cherish every single one of them! I'll update soon! :D

Yugisrose


	12. Chapter 12

Hey guys, sorry for the long long update wait. I was busy...but this is really weird.

I could have sworn I posted this chapter the last time. Am I wrong? I dunno...but I have Chapter 13 written already so expect a speedy update within the next week. lol

Corona

Chapter 12

* * *

Yugi went into the first room he had hoped to find Ryou: the kitchen. Luckily, his hunch was correct, and Ryou was already sitting at the table, alone. He was staring at the Millennium Ring.

"Hey, Ryou?" Yugi said making Ryou jump. "Oh…uh…sorry for scaring you."

"Oh, no sorry, I was just thinking." Ryou quickly let go of the Ring. "Uh…so how did your talk with Yami go?"

Yugi raised an eyebrow.

"How did you know we were talking?" Yugi was pretty sure he saw Ryou chatting with everyone else when Yami asked to talk. Ryou started to look nervous.

"Oh…h-he said that he wanted to talk with you…so I just figured he did already." Ryou quickly lied. Yugi just sighed and took the seat across from him.

"It went fine…"

"Oh, okay…"

They both fell into an awkward silence, and all that could be heard was Joey arguing with Tea in the next room, of what, they could not hear.

"Do you think you could tell me more about the Crown now?" Yugi said suddenly, breaking the silence. Ryou blinked and remembered his promise after they escaped Bakura's HQ.

"Yeah, okay," he sighed. "But don't you want Yami to hear this too? Or anyone else?"

"No…I'd prefer to tell them myself…especially with Yami."

Ryou raised an eyebrow but did not argue.

"Alright then. I'll just tell you the essential basics…Now the first thing you should know about the Crown, is that it's magic power is far beyond the level of a Millennium Item. It's an ancient relic that was infused with dark energy and was used to help win wars over five thousand years ago. So in that case, if we wanted to ever destroy the Crown, which is what we're going to eventually have to do to stop Bakura, we would need the power of all seven Millennium Items to do so."

"Really? It's _that_ powerful?" Yugi blinked in surprise. No wonder he couldn't use his mind link. He only had half of the Puzzle's power with him so that would really stand no chance against the Crown.

"Yeah it is," Ryou continued. "That thing can do a whole lot more than what you've done with it, believe me…which brings me to another point. I know I've told you this already, but _don't_ use it's power anymore. It will tear your soul into shreds. Literally."

Yugi winced and thought back to only ten minutes earlier, when Yami accidentally set off the Crown. He could still feel the effects that had on him and suddenly wondered how much damage that did. It was starting to get to the point to where he couldn't even tell anymore. But nonetheless, he nodded.

"Yeah, I get it."

"Good," Ryou sighed almost in relief. "But there's more to that. I think there's a way to get that Crown out of you. To do that, we would have to go back to where Bakura got it: Rome."

"Why do we have to go there?"

"Because that's where it came from. Believe it or not, there are some pyramids from ancient Rome. In one of the rooms where the Crown came from, there are carvings all over the walls that tell about it. The history and all about that Crown is written there, and I'm pretty sure it can tell you how to get it out of you."

Yugi looked at him in shock. So there really is a way? He's not cursed with it forever?

"But there's a problem," Ryou sighed. He looked out of the one window that was in the room. The green sky was reflected in everything. "The barrier that's around the city will prevent us from leaving." Yugi blinked.

"What barrier?"

"When Bakura used the Crown on the city, he put a barrier around the city. That's why the sky is green." Ryou said simply, looking at Yugi. "It's also the reason you separated from Yami and why I'm separate from Bakura. The Crown has the power to separate souls, as I told you earlier…"

"S-so that's a barrier?" Yugi said in awe at the green sky. He had just assumed that it was the affect of the Crown being used and thought it was like that everywhere, not just Domino. Not until now did he even think about why the sky was green.

"Yes. It's like a dome around the city. The barrier will keep us from exiting the city unless we have the Crown. Since the only way to use it is for you to activate it, you're the one that's going to have to lead the way through it."

Yugi looked at him in confusion. First Ryou said to not use the Crown because it was dangerous, and now he was saying that he was going to have to use it anyway? Yugi asked Ryou about this and Ryou just sighed.

"Yeah I know," Ryou said. "But I don't think opening up a doorway through the barrier takes up as much energy as attacking Kaiba is, so you should be fine…which reminds me…"

Yugi waited for him to speak, but it took Ryou another half a minute before he could find the right words.

"I know I'm getting ahead of ourselves here…but when we get the Crown out of you….make sure you don't actually _wear_ it."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Yugi asked.

But their conversation was cut short when Joey and Yami walked through the kitchen door, with Joey muttering to Yami. He continued to mutter to himself as he looked for food in the fridge that stopped working long ago.

"Oh hey guys," Ryou spoke over Joey's mutterings. "What are you two up to?"

"Oh, sorry," Yami stopped walking in front of them. "Did we interrupt something?"

Ryou looked at Yugi, who nodded, and then back to Yami.

"…No, but there are a few things that we need to tell you all."

* * *

"I know how we can turn the city back to normal, and defeat Bakura," Ryou said straight out. He and Yugi had gathered Yami, Joey, Tea, and Tristan(with Solomon strangely absent) in the living room and was beginning to tell them basically what he had told Yugi. Everyone looked at him eagerly to continue. "First, we need to get the Crown out of Yugi, then we destroy it."

"Yes, but how do we _do_ that?" Yami said louder than necessary. While everyone was sitting on chairs or the couch, he was the only one standing. "The last time I tried getting it out, things didn't go to well."

Ryou refrained from asking how it _did_ go and continued.

"Well we have to take it back to where Bakura got it: Rome. There, I think we can get it out."

"Italy?" Tea said, eyes wide. "That's far…"

"Wait…are you sure about this?" Yami asked wide eyed. Ryou nodded.

"Yes pretty sure. I _was_ there when Bakura got the Crown after all."

Ryou then began to tell them about the barrier that surrounded Domino. When he was finished, everyone looked shocked but Yami. He just had a look of grim understanding.

"It makes sense…" he said. "But there has to be a way around it…"

"There is," Ryou said. "Normally, the only person that's able to go through it, is the one holding the Crown, and anyone else touching that person. But since the Crown is in Yugi, I'm pretty sure he can just walk through it…and anyone who wants to pass through it with him only has to be touching him."

This only increased the uneasiness in Yami's gaze, but whatever was on his mind, he didn't speak of it out loud.

"Ok," Joey said seriously. "So saying that we're able to get past that shield around the city, fly to Rome, and get that Crown outta Yugi, what do we do with it?"

"We destroy it." Ryou said simply. "The power of all seven Millennium Items are able to destroy it."

"…Which Bakura still has most of them." Tristan said sitting up from laying down. "How would we be able to get them from him?"

"Well, once we have the Crown out of Yugi, we'll have that, the Puzzle, my half of the Ring, and the Rod."

"But Bakura has more Items than we do," Tea spoke up. Ryou smiled.

"Yes, but the Crown will be more powerful than all of the items he has, combined."

Everyone was silent for a moment, while they gathered their thoughts. Then Joey spoke up.

"So what if half of us went with Yugi to Rome, and the other half works to get the Millennium Items from Bakura?"

Everyone looked at him in shock.

"Joey didn't you just hear me?" Ryou said. "The Crown is more powerful than all of the items he has, combined. Why would we need the ones he has now?"

"Because the less he has the better," Joey said seriously. "And if Yugi's leaving to Rome with the Crown, we won't have much of anything anyway."

"That's too dangerous Joey." Yami said. "I'm going with Yugi to Rome, and Ryou is going to have to come too, to show us where Bakura got it. But during that time, just lay low. We don't want Bakura finding any of you defenseless."

Joey didn't say anything, but Tea and Tristan nodded in agreement.

"Then it's settled," Ryou said nodding at Yugi. "We leave for Rome in the morning."

* * *

It was one thing about the gloomy green skies that gave the once familiar neighborhood a look of unfamiliarity, but another when it got hard to tell where the sun was in the sky. At least, that's what Solomon thought as he watched everyone get ready for bed. The sky became an even darker green and it got hard to see anything outside, so everyone assumed that the sun was going down. He looked out in the living room, where everyone was getting sleeping bags and dusty blankets out. He heard them all agree that it would be safer to sleep in the same room.

Solomon sighed as he watched them get into their makeshift bedding. A few hours earlier, he had eavesdropped on their conversation. And although they confided in him what was happening later on, he was shocked about what Yugi had been keeping from him, and the plans that they had made. With all of the facts that Ryou was spilling out to everyone, it took everything Solomon had to run out there yelling, "NO!" But he had to keep reminding himself that they were all growing up, and that they could take care of themselves. Not to mention that they saved the world many times before, so this shouldn't be any different…right?

Solomon walked back over to the window, to watch the neighborhood he used to know get darker and darker. He remembered about what Joey had said earlier about not giving up and just letting Bakura win. Joey was right: they couldn't let him win. Not after all they went through…not after he was attacked multiple times by nameless zombies or…

Solomon blinked, realizing that he had not seen a single zombie since the kids returned from Bakura's Headquarters. It gave him an uneasy feeling as he didn't see or hear any, even now.

"Something's going to happen soon," he mumbled to himself. "Hopefully we'll be ready when it does…"

* * *

Okay so there's a boring chapter, that basically just explains things. Next chapter will be a little better at least. lol. Again, does anyone else remember this chapter at all? I thought I uploaded it...but I guess not! Confusion! lol

Anyway, thanks all who reveiw, alert and fav. A special thanks to **Yugi123** for reminding me that there are people who are waiting for the next chapter lol.

You all rock.

Yugisrose


	13. Chapter 13

See? A quick update! lol

Corona

Chapter 13

* * *

Yugi sat up quickly as if he had awoken from a nightmare. Upon looking around, making sure that everyone was still asleep, he quietly got up and walked into the other room.

He had not had a nightmare of course. Thinking about what they had to do the next day made him feel uneasy and restless so he couldn't sleep at all. Not to mention what had happened after they returned from Bakura's Headquarters. Yami had accidentally set off the Crown inside him using the Puzzle and it was still hurting him quite a bit. Another reason why he could not sleep.

And that got him thinking about what Ryou had said only hours ago, about how using the power of the Crown inside him would tear his soul to pieces. And, he thought, it must be true, because it felt that way. Every time he used the Crown's power, it felt like it took him longer and longer to recover. And this time was no exception.

Yugi walked over to the window and looked at the green sky. Since it was night, everything had a dark green tint to it, making it more menacing looking than it normally is at this time of night. The color reminded him of the color of the eyes of all the zombies they saw the morning before: Cimmerian, stygian, and cloudy. It was the dead decaying look that brought shivers up yours spine and made you think unpleasant thoughts.

Those very unpleasant thoughts were interrupted when he heard a shuffling noise behind him. He quickly looked and saw Yami in the doorway, looking a little cautious.

"Is everything alright?" Yami whispered, careful to not wake the sleeping occupants in the other room.

"Yeah, sorry did I wake you?"

"No, I didn't fall asleep yet," Yami said as he walked over to him. Yet Yugi could tell from the look in his eyes that he was at least, half awake. "Couldn't sleep?"

Yugi looked back out the window in order to avoid his gaze.

"No…I was just thinking about what we have to do."

"We don't have to go through with it you know. There are other ways to get the Crown out of you by staying here in Domino." Yami said. Yugi thought he sounded almost pleading.

"No, Ryou said that it was the only way. I'm willing to take the risks to get it out. But if you don't want to go-"

"No that's not it at all. I just don't want to see you get hurt."

"I don't want to see you get hurt either," Yugi said now looking at Yami directly. Even from the dim green lighting coming from the window, he could tell that Yami looked very worried over the subject. "That's why if you want to stay-"

"Yugi, I'm not going to be separated from you again." Yami sighed and he turned away from the window. "Just promise me, that whatever happens, we'll stay together this time. Alright?"

Yugi smiled slightly and nodded. "Yeah."

Yami nodded as well, and then made to leave. He suddenly stopped, and looked at Yugi again. He looked like he hesitated on the edge of speech, but then thought better of it. Yami then turned around and went back through the doorway he came from leaving a slightly confused Yugi behind.

* * *

Dawn came all too soon for everybody. It could have been because the night seemed to go by very quickly while they were sleeping, or it could have been that they lost track of time as it was too hard to tell what time it was exactly. Either way, they were all yawning as they all were putting their sleeping bags away. The lighting that the barrier gave off when the sun reflected through it made the city look very surreal, making it hard to tell the time. All of the clocks had stopped working as soon as Bakura unleashed the Crown's power on the city.

The absence of the zombies that roamed the city since yesterday subsided, which was good news. Yet Solomon remained worried about it, and voiced his concerns as Yami, Yugi and Ryou were getting ready to leave for Rome.

"It's probably either because they died off or Bakura's using them for something," Ryou said rubbing his eyes. "Either way it's good for us right now. We can actually walk to the next city without any interruptions."

Solomon nodded nervously as Ryou, Yami and Yugi went over their plan again. It was a simple one: get to the barrier before something comes after them, get through it in one piece, and head to the airport in the next town. Then fly to Rome, and go to the Crown's resting place to somehow extract it from Yugi. Ryou had warned them earlier that it was possible that the planes in Domino wouldn't work either from the zombies messing with it, or just the fact that the power coming from the Crown would mess with it in general. So it would be safer to go to one outside of Domino.

After Solomon had made a quick breakfast of stale bread and butter, it was time to head out. Ryou had his empty backpack, and Solomon gave Yami his credit card for safe keeping, in case they needed it. As the three of them were heading out the door, they said their last goodbyes, for who knows how long.

"Are you sure you don't want us to come with you?" Tea anxiously said. She had this worried look all morning like she expected something to go wrong. The thing was, it was all too likely.

"It's better if only the three of us go," Yami said looking at not only her, but Joey, Tristan and Solomon too. "We would attract too much attention otherwise. Just stay here and lay low. If anything tries to come in, run and hide. It's best if Bakura doesn't know where you are."

As Tea nodded in understanding, Solomon went up to Yugi.

"Remember that we'll always be here for you, even if only in spirit. Alright? Don't do anything reckless. I want you to be careful…all of you," he said motioning to Yami and Ryou as well. "Do that simple act for us and we'll be sure to do the same."

The three of them nodded and turned around to walk out the door. As Yami neared it, Joey decided to speak.

"And make sure you come back in one piece, alright?"

The three of them looked back to give an encouraging thumbs up and then they were out.

* * *

The streets of Domino were quiet, and dark. Buildings that were starting to crumble the day before were either completely collapsed or on their way. Not a single soul, living or dead, was walking around. The sky didn't make it any better. Dark green waves shot through the sky above, giving everything the ominous feel of being lost in the middle of a dense forest. The pale green light of the sun pierced through, giving one remaining bright spot in the sky amidst a sea of dark emerald. It was their only light as Yugi, Yami and Ryou quickly walked through the city. Occasionally they would duck behind a dumpster or a building if they heard a noise, but it would always turn out to be a piece of a building falling off a rotting part of it. The zombies remained absent, so they cautiously walked to the barrier.

It took them a and hour and a half's walk to get to the edge of the barrier, but they made it without any interruptions. The three of them looked at it in awe. From close up, it looked like a giant green wall that towered over them. As it neared the top, it started to curve inward, creating the dome that was covering Domino. It seemed to pulsate with energy. Ryou chuckled nervously.

"I-it's a lot bigger then I remember."

"Now are you sure that this is the only way?" Yami asked turning to him. He looked nervous too. Ryou nodded and they both looked at Yugi.

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah," Yugi nodded. "What should I do again?"

"You need to walk in first, but for us to get through we'll need to hold hands." Ryou said and their hands interlinked. They looked towards the wall one last time before they were going to pass through it.

"And Yugi?"

Yugi turned at Ryou. He looked even more nervous than he was even a minute ago.

"Make sure you go through quickly, ok?"

Yugi nodded and looked back at the towering structure. It was now or never.

After taking a deep breath, he ran through the barrier, with Ryou and Yami behind him.

There was a flash, screams, then nothing.

* * *

Well, there you go! Sorry if it's a little short...I wanted to stop the chapter there since it makes a good cliffhanger. Hehehe. I should update more frequently though. I want to make it a habit.

A special thanks to **Wokwok**. You helped me get some details in, even if you don't realize it. :P

Thanks to all of you reveiwers, alerters and favoriters...if that's even a real word...:o

You all rock.

Yugisrose


	14. Chapter 14

Hey guys, sorry for the long wait...you know how it is with being busy and stuff. Well I know this chapter might not be _extremely_ exciting, but it's still okay...But I've already started the next chapter, so hopefully there won't be much of a wait. :)

Corona

Chapter 14

Yami woke up on the ground feeling stabs of pain going up his entire body. It was so intense that all he could do was lay there for a moment and let it recede. When it started to go away, he sat up, and received a shock.

They had reached across the barrier. Directly in front of him, was the giant green wall, but something about it was strange. It seemed…brighter. That's when he realized that blue sky dominated above. Clouds drifted lazily across and a few birds flew by. A sound of a helicopter could be heard in the distance. After being under the barrier's green sky for so long, seeing blue was like a breath of fresh air.

Something shifted to Yami's right. He looked and was surprised to see Ryou getting up right next to him. He was so entranced by the blue sky that he didn't even realize that Ryou was right next to him.

"Ryou, are you okay?" Yami said helping him up a little. Ryou didn't look any better than what he felt.

He winced, and said, "Yeah, but that one hurt…"

Yami looked around who was missing and found him a bit behind him, unconscious.

"Oh, no, Yugi!" Yami ran over to him, and cradled him in his arms. "Yugi, get up!"

Ryou followed Yami over, and looked on hopelessly. _It must have been too much for his soul,_ he thought sadly. But when Ryou looked again and it seemed like Yugi's face had some sort of emotion on it…pain? He was also pale and panting a little bit. Okay well he wasn't dead, but he didn't lose his soul either. Ryou breathed a small sigh of relief. They still had a chance.

But they were still somewhat in the middle of nowhere. Fields and woods stretched out around them, and another city loomed over the horizon over the trees. They had to get to that city to find an airport. Ryou looked at Yami, who was still trying to wake Yugi up.

"Yami, we should go to that city over there now. We should rest there for a bit, and give Yugi time to recover."

At first, Yami didn't say anything, and Ryou was afraid that he would object. But then Yami slowly looked up slightly and said, "Alright. But first…" He trailed off as he put his hand over Yugi's chest, and the Millennium Puzzle around his neck started to glow.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Ryou asked in alarm. Mixing magics and powers to do a single task never usually had positive effects. They unusually ended up rebounding on the user. But Yami seemed to be expecting Ryou to say something, for he didn't look surprised at his outburst.

"I'm going to give him some of my energy," Yami said, his voice calm despite how anguished his eyes looked.

"Will that work do you think?"

"It should. I've done it already once before…"

Ryou looked at him for a second, as if trying to figure something out. "Alright then, in that case…" He put his hand on Yami's. "Give him some of mine too."

Yami looked up at him in surprise and was about to argue, saying that he had enough energy to give Yugi, but then stopped himself. It was best if they combined their power anyway. Besides, the more energy Yugi got the better.

"Alright…"

The Millennium Ring glowed around Ryou's neck, in sync with the Puzzle. Yami looked at Yugi intently for any signs of change, as he and Ryou slowly released their energy to him. A few minutes passed, and then ten. Time was lost to them and Ryou focused on the rays of soft light that emanated from the Millennium Items to keep his concentrating on the task at hand. When they could spare as much energy as they could, Yami severed the flow, and the glowing stopped. Ryou sat back and sighed, trying to get used to the energy drain.

"Do you think it worked?"

As if on cue, Yugi's eyes slowly opened, and Yami gasped, almost as if he was afraid that it wasn't going to work.

"Yugi!"

To Ryou, it still looked like Yugi was still weak and in pain. His face grew paler as he blinked a couple of times, as if trying to get used to the sunlight.

"Looks like…we got t-through…" Yugi's words slurred slightly as if he had too much to drink. Ryou looked nervously at Yami but the ex pharaoh didn't return the gaze. He could tell that seeing Yugi this way pained Yami greatly and Ryou found himself feeling a little envious at the bond that the two of them shared. He quickly shook his head and berated himself for such thoughts.

Yugi gasped in pain as he tried to move and Yami put his hand back on Yugi's chest.

"Yugi, don't strain yourself," he said with a cracking voice. Yugi was panting and what little color was in his face left it. "Conserve your strength…"

"Yeah," Ryou spoke up, trying to add reassurance. "Besides, you're going to need it. We're going to find a place to rest, so…" He trailed off, not sure what else to say. When he thought about it, his advice didn't seem to be a confidence booster. It only seemed to remind them of how much they still had to do, and how broken they were already.

"S-sorry…but I don't think I could move…if I wanted to…" Yugi's voice was barely above a whisper. Then his eyes closed and he succumbed to unconsciousness once more.

"Yugi-!" Yami half yelled, but stopped himself. Concern and sadness was all he could think about at the moment, and Yami couldn't even think of a way to help him any more. He felt so useless…

Ryou sighed. "I guess the Crown did more damage than we thought it would…"

Yami looked up at him and Ryou was shocked to see tears in the ex pharaoh's eyes. When he spoke, his words was steady but his eyes betrayed his voice.

"Don't think I didn't notice the gaping holes in our story Ryou," he said. Ryou blinked in confusion at the sudden mention at the explanation on the Crown he gave yesterday. "But now that it's just us, can you tell me all of it?

"What didn't you tell me about the Crown?"

Ryou looked at him sadly and nodded. "Fine, I'll tell you but let's find someplace to stay first. I'd feel better about explaining it if we weren't in such an exposed location."

In the distance, the sound of the helicopter was constant, which led them to believe that news had gotten out about Domino City's fate, and the military was scouting the perimeter trying to find a way in. If it really was the military flying around up there then Yami and Ryou had no desire to let themselves be seen. Too many questions would be asked that they couldn't answer, and they would never be able to reach Rome. It was better for them to find their own way there than arouse suspicion.

Yami nodded at Ryou's request, and steeling himself he scooped Yugi up in his arms.

"Then let's go. Maybe we can find a hotel to stay at in the next town over."

So together they walked in silence. The town they were going towards was called Rintama City. It was a small town that wasn't known for it's welcoming atmosphere, but it was supposed to house some of the richest people around (save for Seto Kaiba). More importantly, it was close. Domino City and Rintama City were separated by a few miles of woods and trails. However, it would be easy to find the quickest route because people often traversed the woods to travel between cities if they didn't want to catch the eye of the townsfolk. Because of that, the forest was often teeming of thugs, crooks and other wanted criminals who were trying to hide from the law. But as Yami and Ryou walked through, not a single soul was to be found. Whether it was a good or bad thing, either of them had yet to figure it out.

Ryou had thought about explaining more of his story to Yami as they were walking, but he seemed to have a lot on his mind, and he stared at Yugi for most of the time, so Ryou thought it best he didn't say anything.

An hour of silent walking went by before they started to see the buildings in the distance, past all of the trees and bushes. Ten more minutes later, they finally reached Rintama City. The length of the city itself had to only be a mile wide, and it consisted mostly of small mansions, apartments, and shopping malls. A few business buildings were scattered around evenly throughout the rest of the buildings. On one side of the far end of the city, there seemed to be a lone amusement park. It was easy to see because the Ferris Wheel was the tallest thing around. None of the buildings were very tall (and definitely not nearly as tall as Kaiba Corp.), nor were they very long. Still, they all had a certain elegance to them that most buildings in Domino City lacked. Some mansions had curved architecture made of stone instead of metal and glass, giving them the look of a modern stone age. However, how the buildings looked wasn't the most shocking part of Rintama City.

The most shocking part was that the entire city was abandoned.

"…Wow," was all Yami could say.

He and Ryou walked through the streets, taking in everything and it's lack of people. Trash and clothes littered part of the streets, and doors hung open as if everyone left in a hurry. Most of the cars that normally would have been parked in the street or driveway were missing. A slight wind blew through and made a strange whistling sound as they traveled between houses. Scraps of paper blew everywhere as the wind flew into an open window, scattering them all over the road and on other closed windows. Trees behind them swayed and creaked as if they were close do breaking. The whole city gave off an empty yet creepy vibe.

"I guess we should have expected this," Ryou whispered, still staring at the emptiness the city contained. "Everyone must have fled when they saw the barrier appear over Domino…What do we do now?"

Yami looked down at Yugi, and then around at all of the buildings. "We find a place to rest for now."

Yami led the way as he went to one of the houses he first came upon, which seemed random to Ryou. The one that Yami chose to stay in seemed normal enough. When they walked in through the open front door, the grandeur of the inside didn't match the outside. The foyer's carpet was a dark red, and a chandelier sparkled overhead, another story up. Stairs at the far left led upstairs to a hallway with a bunch of rooms. To their immediate right was a doorway that was shut, and to their left was another one that let to what looked like the kitchen.

Yami made no move to explore however, and headed straight for the stairs. Ryou followed without hesitation, for something about the place seemed just as creepy as outside. Once they were all of the way up the stairs, Yami looked in one of the rooms, and it turned out to be a bedroom. He immediately went in and set Yugi down upon the bed and sat on the edge to keep an eye on him. Ryou went and stood at the edge of the bed, to nervous to sit. Silence reigned for a few moments before Yami spoke up.

"Alright Ryou, fill me in."

It only took Ryou ten more minutes to explain what he already didn't tell Yami about the Crown. He knew that Yugi's reasons for not wanting Yami to know that the Crown was destroying his soul were justified, but now Ryou thought that it was best that he knew. Yugi was getting worse with each time the Crown activates and now that they went through the barrier, he could be at his limit. Yami needed to know the urgency of getting to Rome as soon as possible. When Ryou was finished, Yami looked more scared and worried than he had ever seen him, and at that moment, Ryou fully understood why Yugi didn't want Yami to know. He was staring wide eyed at Yugi, but his eyes were unfocused, as if he wasn't seeing him at all.

"You mean…after all this," he mumbled to himself. Ryou stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder.

"There's still hope though! Yugi still has his soul, and we can still make it to Rome and get the Crown out of him. You just have to believe…"

Yami looked like he wanted to turn around and shove Ryou away, but after a few more seconds, he calmed himself.

"You're right…" he rested his head in one hand and stared at the floor. "We're not going to give up…not at all."

* * *

Urk...yeah kind of a lame ending to a kind of boring/short-ish chapter...heh...hehe...

Oh, but next chapter will be better! Yes! So please stay tuned!

Yugisrose


	15. Chapter 15

Corona

Chapter 15

Ryou sighed as he exited the bedroom. He had sat in there with Yami for another half hour before he decided he wanted to explore the house. Yugi looked no closer to waking up than earlier, and Yami clearly wanted some time to think, so Ryou excused himself and walked out into the hallway.

He looked up and down the corridor, grimacing at the ugly wallpaper that covered it's walls. The wallpaper was white with red and pink hearts placed in random places and some mold that had been developing over years of neglect hung in the corners. Having no desire to have to look at the ugly decoration any longer, Ryou descended the staircase that led to the foyer. All was quiet, save for the sudden wind that was blowing outside, rattling the loose windows. Looking to his right, Ryou peered in the doorway and was pleased to find the kitchen.

"Maybe there's still food in here," he said. The kitchen looked very clean and tidy. The countertops lined almost every side of the walls, and the stove and refrigerator was at the far corner.

However, the farther Ryou walked into the kitchen, the more he noticed a strange odor emanating from somewhere in the room. It took him a few more steps to realize that the smell was of something decaying. He wrinkled his nose at the smell and stopped in his tracks.

"_Maybe since they shut off the electricity, the food in the fridge is going bad_," he thought to himself, but for some reason, he seriously doubted it. The house was still too clean, meaning that whoever lived here abandoned it very, very recently. That was too soon for even milk to make _that _sort of smell. So then, what was it?

Overcome by curiosity, Ryou stepped more and more into the kitchen, trying to find the source of the stink. It got stronger and stronger until he reached the refrigerator, and by that time, Ryou had to hold his nose. Whatever it was, was coming from inside the icebox. Steeling himself from whatever it was that was inside, Ryou opened the door, and the odor increased tenfold.

Something large fell out of it, unsupported by the door and fell onto the floor. Ryou stepped back quickly to avoid having it fall on him.

What fell out, was a zombie of a small female child who looked no older than six. Ryou stepped back several steps, covering his nose hardly daring to breathe. The child's hair was matted in several places, and her skin was beginning to take on a greenish hue. Her eyes were wide open and blank, yet a small twitch escaped them as she rested on the floor. Ryou resisted the urge to scream aloud, and ran in the opposite direction, being sure to close the kitchen door behind him.

The smell stopped at the edge of the doorway, so Ryou could breathe properly again after he shut the door. However his nerves were shot at the moment, and he had to take a few deep breaths to calm himself.

How were there zombies here? Ryou thought that they wouldn't be able to get past the barrier surrounding Domino, but maybe he was wrong. If that was the case and they could get through, then perhaps they were in danger staying here.

"_Well, now we know where they've been disappearing to_…" Ryou thought to himself as he quickly climbed the stairs and walked to the room where Yami was staying with Yugi. He calmed himself before approaching.

When he cautiously opened the door, he was surprised to see Yugi sitting up in the bed. He and Yami looked up when Ryou entered.

"Hey Yugi," he said walking up to the bed. "How are you feeling?"

Yugi sighed. "I'm fine, really."

Yami looked skeptical but decided not to say anything. Ryou thought that Yugi still looked worn out, but not as bad as earlier. Although, when he looked close enough, Yugi's eyes seemed to be missing a certain spark that they once held. His face seemed almost expressionless, which worried Ryou of how Yugi really was feeling.

"Um…so where are we exactly?" Yugi asked looking around the room in semi interest.

"We're in Rintama City," Yami said. "The entire place is abandoned, so we thought to take refuge here until we could find suitable transportation to Rome."

Yugi looked surprised, but the emotion went as soon as it came. "Where is everyone?"

"They probably left when Bakura but the barrier over Domino…"Ryou said. He mentally gasped when he remembered the reason why he came up here in the first place. He held his tongue however, not wanting to alarm Yugi or Yami too quickly. It didn't seem like the zombie child was going anywhere, so they were probably weren't in any immediate danger. But Ryou did want to tell them as soon as he could, since there might be more zombies roaming around.

Something in his face might have betrayed his thoughts however, because Yugi looked at him strangely and asked, "Ryou, what's wrong?"

Ryou blinked in surprise, as Yami looked at him too, eyes narrowing.

"What is it?" he said after a slight pause.

Silently cursing their intuition, (yet still thankful for it at the same time,) Ryou told them of his little venture to the kitchen and of the zombie he found within it. By the time he was finished, Yami was pacing the room, looking confused and distracted. Ryou watched as he went from one end of the room to the other, then back again.

"If that's the case, we should head to Rome as soon as possible," he finally said. "The faster we get there, the less likely the chance of them attacking us. But you said it didn't attack you?"

"No," Ryou thought back to when it fell out of the refrigerator. It was almost completely decayed, yet still somewhat "alive." He shuddered at the thought of such a meager existence. "It probably wouldn't be able to make it out of the kitchen."

"Still, we shouldn't take the chance. If any of them corner us in here, we're done for." Yami stopped his pacing to look back and forth from Ryou to Yugi, as if seeing if they would agree or disagree.

Ryou thought about telling Yami to wait a little longer before they leave since they had little time to rest, but thought better of it. Yami looked very nervous and Ryou thought that staying on the move would be best.

"Yeah, let's go," Yugi said. He got up at the edge of the bed and stood up. At first, it almost looked like his legs were going to give out from underneath him, but he remained steady, and ready to leave. Yami hesitated, but then nodded. They crept down the stairs as quietly as they could, and after making sure that the kitchen door was secure, the three of them exited the house.

Wind buffeted them as they walked out to the street, causing papers and trash to fly at them almost constantly. Some of the slightly taller buildings creaked slightly as the wind pushed at them.

"Now where do we go?" Ryou asked. "Should we still head to the airport even though it's this windy out?"

"Yes," Yami nodded. "Grandpa told me that it would probably be on the farther edge of the town, so it shouldn't take us an hour to walk there…"

And so they walked through the empty streets, avoiding trash or spilled clothing whenever they could. Ryou had kept a close eye on Yugi since they started to walk. While he seemed as fine as he said, Ryou could tell that he was still hurting. But what concerned Ryou the most was that Yugi continued to have almost no emotion since he woke up. There would be small amounts here and there, but for the most part, his face was blank. Ryou was sure that Yugi's soul was reaching it's limit. He thought about mentioning it to Yami but soon realized that it would be pointless, for the ex pharaoh seemed to be well aware. In fact, Yami was paying closer attention to Yugi than Ryou was, which made him a little nervous. Every few seconds, Yami would look at Yugi for no longer than a second long, as if to hide the fact that he was looking. That had been going on for ten minutes before Ryou had to speak.

"So…" Ryou said, eager to cut the silence that had fallen between them since they left. "What if we found a car to drive to the airport instead?"

Yami raised an eyebrow. "Where?"

Ryou cocked his head, not sure what he meant, then realized it as he looked around at the street. Not a single car was to be found, and he was sure that they didn't see any since they arrived. Everyone had probably taken their cars and drove out of the city as fast as possible.

"Yeah, I guess you're right…"

True to Yami's guessed time limit, they reached the airport in an hour. The three of them somehow ended up on the far edge of one of the runways. The large runway was spread out before them that stretched a half a mile long. Behind it, stood the airport, lifeless and dry, devoid of life. Like Rintama City, the airport which was usually so full of activity, was completely abandoned. The three of them expected it as soon as they entered the city, but a new problem arose that they didn't think of: not only were there no pilots to fly any planes, but there were _no_ planes. The airport was devoid of anything that should make it an airport: people and airplanes. Cars littered the parking lots haphazardly as if everyone drove to the airport in order to escape the city. It must have been one big evacuation...

"Oh no…" Ryou said. "Now what are we going to do? How are we getting to Rome now? Walk to another city? That's really far…"

Yami however, didn't look too concerned. In fact, he seemed to smirk to himself, as if he was formulating a particularly evil plan. Ryou looked at him for a second before asking, "What is it?"

Yami looked at him. "Kaiba has a theme park in this City, right?"

Ryou looked at him quizzically. "…yeah?"

"Well he has his own private jet there."

Ryou blinked. Not what he was expecting…

"We could take that to Rome." Yami looked pleased by the idea.

Ryou face palmed.

"What?"

Ryou sighed. "Yami, what makes you think we can fly a jet? No, wait. Let me rephrase that. What makes you think we can fly _Kaiba's _jet?"

"What? It's probably not that hard. It's like driving a car, right?" Yami said.

Ryou resisted the urge to face palm again. "No, it's not. It's a lot more dangerous too. If we crash-"

"Ryou," Yami looked at him with a stern gaze. "We don't have any other choice. If it's this or let Bakura take over the world, which would you rather choose?"

Trying to find any other plan, Ryou desperately searched through his mind for an alternative, but couldn't find one. He sighed and nodded.

"Alright, but what if the jet isn't there?"

"We'll cross _that_ road when we get to it."

Not even bothering to set foot in the airport terminal, Yami, Ryou and Yugi walked through the streets towards where they knew Kaiba had one of his them parks. It was relatively close to the airport itself, so it wasn't hard to find. Not only that but signs were posted everywhere around the airport, advertising the kid friendly place. In half an hour, the three of them reached the amusement park. The blue eyes white dragon statue greeted them at the entrance.

"Um…so where do you think it is?" Ryou asked looking around. It looked like all there was were rides, games, food stands and dueling arenas. None of the buildings seemed like they would be a suitable place to keep or launch a jet.

"Look, up there!" Yami pointed at the top of the front building. From the position they were at, it was hard to see. But at the top, sat the blue eyes white jet. Kaiba's personal favorite.

Ryou inwardly groaned. "Great…we even get to travel in style."

"Come on," Yami ignored Ryou's sarcastic comment and led the way into the building. The inside was built for dueling and the giant hologram projectors made little room for anything else. However, at the far end of the auditorium sat a staircase that led to the roof. The three of them quickly climbed it and quickly reached where there was a trap door that one could open to climb the roof. Yami opened it and they all climbed out. Standing in front of them was the blue eyes white jet.

Ryou walked over to it as if to inspect it.

"Alright now how do you open this thing?" Ryou said as he and Yami looked around on it. Yugi stayed where he was.

"Oh, right here," Yami said on the right side. Over to where the head of the dragon was, it's eyes were windows. Each window had a button on it to open leading into the cockpit. It was built differently than the one Kaiba used before. The one he had in Battle City could only seat two people and there was a lot more to it. This jet however seemed to be able to accommodate for at least four people and had less confusing operating controls. It still looked confusing though. Yami hopped in the head and examined all the instruments, buttons and levers. "I think this one starts it."

A beeping sound could be heard as Yami pressed said button, and the blue eyes white jet roared to life. Smoke drifted out of the end exhausts and the noise from the engine got louder and louder as it warmed up.

Yami smirked and gave a thumbs up to Ryou. "Looks like we're heading to Rome."

Ryou looked nervous as he walked in the jet with Yami. "Alright but I'll drive. No offense, but you haven't even driven a car before. You won't know how to drive a jet"

"What, and _you_ _do_?"

"Microsoft Flight Simulator. It teaches wonders."

Yami just grunted, trying to ignore that comment also. While Ryou tried to figure out what each switch, lever, knob and button did, Yami walked out of the dragon head and went over to Yugi. He had not said much of anything since he woke up, and Yami was getting more and more worried. Every time he looked at Yugi's face, he seemed a little more distant each time, like he wasn't all there. Now was no different, for when Yami walked up to him, Yugi seemed to be zoning out, staring at the jet but not really seeing it at all.

"Yugi?" Yami was glad when Yugi jumped slightly and looked at him at the sound of his name. At least he wasn't completely unreachable. "Are you going to be okay to fly?"

Yugi sighed. "I have to be…"

Yami didn't say anything and led him into the cockpit of the dragon. Once they all got settled with seat belts, Ryou (having figured out how to get the jet off the ground), they finally were ready to fly off.

"Hold on to you're seats guys," Ryou said nervously. "It's gonna be a bumpy ride…"

* * *

Ok, well this chapter was a little better than the last lol. I think. Anyway, I'm trying to update more often (as you might have noticed). I have most of the story all written out, but if any of you guys have any ideas, let me know! I'd be glad to hear them, and you'll never know, I might even use the idea.

R&R

Thanks!

Yugisrose


	16. Chapter 16

I apologize for the late delay and I thank all those who keep bugging me to upload the next chapter! You all rock! ;D

* * *

Corona

Chapter 16

The sky seemed to move on it's own accord as the wind buffeted it's clouds. The wind wasn't too strong, but strong enough to veer a plane off course…which is why Yami was glad they were in a jet. Ryou was able to get it off the ground and set a course for Rome which was in the west. The blue eyes white jet soared through the clouds with such speed that the clouds seemed to avoid it altogether…but it was still not fast enough for Yami. He looked behind his seat at Yugi, who was staring into space again, and wished that Rome was closer. He glanced over at Ryou.

"Can't this thing go any faster?"

Ryou took his eyes off of the instruments to look at him with an eyebrow raised. "We're going pretty fast already." It was true. They had already made pretty good time; the jet had been flying for only a half hour and they passed the far edge of China five minutes ago. Ryou personally found it amazing that they weren't already there yet himself, they were going so fast.

"But the faster we get there, the better," Yami said.

Ryou sighed and looked around at all of the instruments again. There were about five different levers, a couple of knobs and around a thousand buttons-all of which were a different set of colors. A few sets flashed in pretty lights. "Well, first I have to figure out which button will speed us up. Now that we're in the air though, I don't want to just press everything at random."

"Well one of these things should make us go faster," Yami said, and he had half a mind to start pressing them anyway, when Yugi's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Wait."

Yami looked behind him and was surprised to see Yugi leaning closer to the front, pointing to one of the levers closest to Ryou. His eyes looked out of focus, like he was daydreaming.

"It's that lever right there," he said and slowly went back to his seat. Yami looked at him confusedly. Yugi's behavior was getting a little strange, and Yami wouldn't have known Yugi to know something like that. Ryou however didn't see it as strange and looked at the lever he pointed at.

"What, this one?" Ryou pushed the lever as far as it would go.

Within a matter of seconds, the blue eyes white jet was going as fast as the engines would take them. The three of them were pushed back to their seats as the pressure increased, and Ryou gripped the steering wheel to keep them from going off course.

"Whoa, Ryou!" Yami said fiercely gripping the edge of his seat. "Too fast! Too fast!"

"Well, you said that you wanted to go faster!"

"Not _this _fast! We'll end up crashing into the ocean!"

"…but we're not over the ocean!"

"_Exactly_!"

Upon request, Ryou eased up on the lever (more gently this time) and they ended up slowing down, but still going at a pretty fast speed. He then looked at Yami with a stern gaze. "See what I mean?" Yami ignored him.

An hour went by of nonstop flying. None of them said anything the entire time after their little speed-up as there was nothing else to say. While Ryou was too busy navigating the jet to speak too much, Yami thought about a lot during that hour. Like, where would they go once they reached Rome? He had no idea where they should go, and although Ryou says that he's been there before, so he should recognize it, but there's still no way of knowing if he'll remember once they get there. Not only that, but what about the citizens of Rome? Yami doubted that they would kindheartedly welcome a blue eyes white jet into their city with three strange Japanese kids on board. They are going to have to land on the outskirts of Rome and secretly walk to the home of the Crown.

Yami looked back at Yugi, who was still staring at a vacant spot on the back of Ryou's seat, staring off into space. Yugi didn't seem like himself since they crossed the barrier, and Yami was worried that he was steadily getting worse. He was unable to gain access to Yugi's mind like he usually did (like using the mind link) and he assumed it was because of the Crown. There could be no other explanation. All Yami knew was that he yearned for the Crown to be out of Yugi…so that they could be one once again.

"There's Rome!" Ryou said suddenly, taking Yami out of his musings. Yami looked out through the windshield to see an amazing landscape. Thousands of old buildings that looked like they were standing for a long, long time were before them. Even from this height, Yami could see that some were so old that parts of the buildings were starting to chip or give way, despite the people's best efforts to keep them standing. The city was shaped in a giant circle, and in the middle of it seemed to be the capital. A giant coliseum laid in the direct center, and the roads and buildings seemed to web out from it. Statues could be found all around it of old deities. Around the city itself were smaller cities and neighborhoods. On the West side lay a vast desert with tall structures that Yami thought looked liked pyramids. There was even a small town full of small houses near the pyramids, that looked worse off than the ones in the actual city. Even from this altitude, the desert seemed to stretch on forever. Ryou seemed to see the desert as well, and veered towards it.

"Aren't we going in Rome?" Yami asked.

"No," Ryou said keeping an eye on his destination. "Bakura found the Crown in one of those pyramids over there…plus we need somewhere to land, and I'm thinking of that town over there. It's pretty close to them. "

Yami looked at the town in the desert that he noticed and grew uneasy. What the villagers did when they saw three teenagers land next to their town in a jet in the shape of a white dragon, was beyond him, but it looked like they were about to find out. Ryou pressed a couple of buttons and the jet slowed down and began it's decent. As they neared the ground, the buildings grew larger and larger, as did the shapes of other things that were unrecognizable from that altitude: like laundry baskets, small shops on the side of the road or old carriages left out in the middle of the street.

The jet jolted as it hit the ground and would have sent them flying if it wasn't for the fact that they were wearing seat belts.

"Sorry," Ryou said after the jet came to a complete halt and the engine was turned off. "My first landing…"

Yami wasn't paying attention though. His eyes were on the streets of the town and beyond. Rome was visible in the distance, and although Rome seemed much larger and richer than the town they had landed next to, they both had one thing in common:

They were both abandoned.

It was easily seen from the confines of the blue eyes white jet. No people roamed anywhere. Food, clothes and even toys laid strewn in the street and on the edges of some houses (which were a step up from a shack). It was almost as if everyone left in a big hurry, desperate to leave.

As the three of them exited the jet, Ryou asked, "Why would there be no one here?" He was looking around in awe and slight fear as Yami helped Yugi out of the jet and onto solid ground. The feeling of isolation was heavy in the air.

"Well if the Crown's place of origin is around here, then that could be why. As of how, I have no idea…" Yami said looking around at the vast desert. About ten giant stone buildings that closely resembled pyramids were strewn about it in seemingly random places. They all varied in size, from the smallest being the size of a shed, to the one in the east that was as large as a mansion. Intricate carvings of Roman gods and goddesses were at the entrances of each one, and ancient writing lined the walls of each doorway. Even at a distance, each letter was somehow able to be seen. "Are they all tombs?"

Ryou looked at each pyramid. "Some of them, I think. But the one we're going to is simply crafted and doesn't have any mummies in it."

"Okay, so which one is it?" Yami asked. Ryou suddenly looked troubled.

"Uh…"

"Don't tell me you forgot."

"I didn't forget! I just need to think about which one we need to go to…"

"You might as well have forgot!"

"No, it's different!"

"Hey, guys?"

Both Yami and Ryou stopped arguing to look at Yugi who, though looking more aware now then he was looking during the ride over, seemed to have a pained look on his face and was looking out at one of the structures. He was gripping his chest in pain where the Crown was infused within him.

"It's…over there…"

Yami walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"The Crown must be reacting to it's resting place," Ryou said. Yugi nodded.

"It doesn't want…to go back…"

"Let's get over there, quickly." Yami said looking at Yugi. "Which one is it?"

Slowly, Yugi pointed to the one he was looking at. It was one of the older looking pyramids, but not the largest.

It took them about five minutes to walk to the pyramid he pointed to due to the distance, and the shifting sands. When they reached the entrance Ryou looked at the two statues standing on either side of the doorway. On the right was a man dressed in roman attire, holding a thunderbolt. On the left was a woman with pomegranate wrapped around her roman dress, and a peacock by her side. Both of them looked powerful. "Huh, I wonder who they are…"

"Let's find out later," Yami said guiding Yugi through the doorway, which strangely enough, didn't have a door.

However, as soon as Yugi went through the stone doorway, he fell on his knees. It was as if the Crown knew exactly where they were, and tried everything to keep them from going any further. Yami, noticing this, helped Yugi to stand.

"What's wrong?"

"This place…" Yugi said weakly. "It doesn't…want…"

Not fully understanding, but knowing it wasn't good, Yami looked at Ryou, who also was worried.

"Ryou, quickly! Where do we go?"

Ryou looked in the structure and walked ahead of them. When they were fully inside, they could somewhat see the interior.

The entire pyramid was built to accommodate the one room they were standing in. The only light they had was that of the sun coming from the doorway they were now standing in front of, but they could still see most of the large room. It was a simple, windowless, rectangular room, with a cella in the middle. On top of the elevated plateau, was a different statue of the same two people that were posted on either side of the entrance, but in different positions. Yami looked around as Ryou leaded them past the statues to the wall behind it. It was then that Yami realized that the walls were not as simple as first observed. Thousands of carved runes were strewn across the entire wall in elegant curves and shapes. There were so many characters that it could have told an entire story, which could have been the case. Down more towards eye level, in the middle of the wall was a shape that was deeper and not as elegant as the rest. Ryou walked towards it and stood in front of it. When Yami stood next to him, only then did he realize that the carving was in the shape of a crown.

"This is where the Crown came from," Ryou said looking at Yami and back at the gouge in the wall.

"Alright, so what do we have to do?" Yami asked looking at Yugi, who was still having trouble standing on his own. He looked back at Ryou who seemed to be thinking.

"I'm not entirely sure. Yugi, why don't you try touching it?" Ryou said.

Yugi didn't say anything, but shakily brought up his hand and touched the carving.

Immediately, all of the runes that littered the walls, suddenly started to glow with green light. The entire room was lit up in the ghoulish lighting, but other than that, nothing happened. Yami noticed this and looked at Ryou.

"Nothing's happening!"

Ryou seemed to struggle with saying something nodded to himself and looked at Yugi.

"Yugi, can you try pushing the Crown's power into it's carving?" he said uncertainly. Yugi was starting to pant from the effort already and the thought of him using the Crown's power again after what it had already was doing to his soul didn't seem good, but Ryou could think of no other alternative. He just hoped that Yugi would be able to handle the strain one last time.

Yugi said nothing, but he must have done what Ryou asked because the runes started to glow even brighter. Yami and Ryou had to shut their eyes because the green light became so intense that they could see nothing else anyway.

Then suddenly, a great force pushed them all backwards. With shouts of surprise, they all landed on the other side of the room and the green light subsided until it was dark in the room once again. But before that, a slight "clank" was heard as if something solid had fallen on the floor.

* * *

Okay! So, don't hate me for late updates. lol

So yeah, as you maaaay have noticed, there's a lot of Yugi torture in this fic...cause I'm weird that way. Just saying there will be more...unless I suddenly change things.

Um...and if anything leaves you confused, just PM me! I'll answer anything you ask, or change anything you think should be changed! (within reason :o)

Anyway R&R! Thankies!

Yugisrose


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